Concerned at the low survival rates in breast cancer in India—as low as 66 per cent when compared to over 90 per cent in the western world, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has initiated steps to set up a Hub and Spoke Network of hospitals to ensure quality care in the sector across the country.
Under the Hub and Spoke model, the ICMR will identify hospitals with best survival rates for breast cancer from East, West, North, South and North-East India which could mentor other institutes with poor survival rates to bring uniformity in breast cancer treatment. “The project will work on a Hub and Spoke model with a co-ordinating centre located at the ICMR Headquarters in the national capital. Hubs will be distributed over the five regions of the country (North, South, East, West and North-east) and will function as nodal points for that region. These Centres will include institutes/medical colleges/hospitals of repute with experience and expertise in conducting multicentre studies,” explained an official from the ICMR.
In this regard, the premier research body has sought expression of interest from the hospitals across the countries to initiate breast cancer survival studies spanning the next three years. “Currently because of poor health resources in the cancer care segment, at stage II, breast cancer survival rate is 66-70 per cent in India as compared to developed countries, which is 90- 99 per cent. Only those hospitals can be part of this network which have cancer based registry and implementing Ayushman Bharat scheme. Those reporting at least 1000 new breast cancer cases annually will serve as Hub while Spoke categories will have 500-500 new breast cancer cases.
Breast cancer is on rise in the country. According to a study by Globocon 2020, In India, every four minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. With some 1,78,000 new cases being diagnosed every year, the incidence of breast cancer has overtaken cervical cancer to become the most common cancer in Indian women. She said that each regional hub, thus identified, will act as the mentoring body for a region, with the responsibilities of supportive supervision and troubleshooting as required. They will have an inclusive expansion plan so that the newly identified potential partnering agencies/institutes/organizations are inducted in the regional network.
Funding for human resources, as well as for the mentoring activities at each of these hubs will be provided by our organization,” she added. The number of regional hubs will be scaled up in a phased manner.
Yet another study has attributed the rising number of breast cancer cases to lack of awareness among women who get diagnosed with breast cancer at its advanced stages and thus, have to undergo all the related treatment modalities that are both physically and mentally challenging.