In an effort to get the real picture of prevalence of Cancer and its types affecting Uttarakhand, a population based Cancer registry is being set up at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh. Incidentally there is no such system in place at present in the state which depicts the actual prevalence of Cancer. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved a project to set up the population based registry for cancer at the AIIMS Rishikesh. At present there are 32 population based Cancer registries in India.
Confirming the development, the director of AIIMS, Rishikesh, Ravikant said that the project would soon start in the institute. He said that the registry would help in understanding the magnitude of the Cancer and prevalence of different types of Cancer which in turn would assist in devising health policies to fight the menace of the disease. The senior Cancer surgeon at AIIMS, Rishikesh, Dr Pankaj Garg said that the project would cover Haridwar and Rishikesh areas of Uttarakhand. He informed that details of every cancer patient of these two areas would be recorded in the registry.
Recruitment for staff of the registry would soon start. Dr Garg further informed that though exact details of the incidences of Cancer in Uttarakhand would be obtained after the end of the project.