Campaign launched to urge government to classify cancer as a notifiable disease in India

Campaign launched to urge government to classify cancer as a notifiable disease in India

The Apollo Cancer Centres in Chennai, in collaboration with three Tamil Nadu-based oncology medical associations, launched a nationwide campaign, ‘Unify to Notify’, on Tuesday February 4, to urge the government to classify cancer as a notifiable disease. February 4 is observed as World Cancer Day.

A panel discussion, ‘Making Cancer a Notifiable Disease Nationally’, was organised on the occasion of the launch of the campaign, to highlight the importance of this issue. India currently reports around 14 lakh new cancer cases annually, and the burden is expected to rise in the coming years. While several States (including Tamil Nadu) have made cancer a notifiable disease, this move has not yet been taken up by several other States, hampering access to data that would present a full picture of the scale of cancer in the country, the panellists pointed out.

The population-based cancer registries currently available in India, represent less than 10% of the population, pointed out Balasundaram. V., president, Association of Radiation Oncologists of India (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry chapter), one of the collaborating partners in the initiative, “Only 28 centres are part of these registries, of which 26 are urban centres and two are rural,” he said, highlighting the need for data to be able to set up cancer facilities in the locations in they were required and for decisions to allocate funds where most needed. Making cancer a notifiable disease would also help doctors and healthcare providers, said S. Ayyappan, secretary, T.N. Association of Surgical Oncology. He said data about tumours, how they were treated, and the outcomes of this treatment would help doctors make decisions about care, and eventually lead to standardisation of cancer care across the country.

Kalaichelvi K., president, Tamil Nadu Medical and Paediatric Oncologist Society, also a collaborating partner in the initiative said making cancer notifiable would help find out the exact incidence in various States, which cancers were high within particular geographies, help identify common etiological agents and thereby, help with rolling out screening programmes, prevention strategies and the stocking of drugs. She added that it would also make treatment easier by ensuring necessary drugs were stocked at health centres.

Suresh S., senior consultant, medical oncology, Apollo Cancer Centre, Vanagaram, gave the example of a village near Thoothukudi from where he was seeing a lot of cancer patients — data could help identify the reason and help decrease morbidity and mortality, he said. Prasad Eswaran, Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre were among the other participants in the discussion moderated by Sankar Srinivasan, Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology, Apollo Cancer Centre, Teynampet.

Real-time data collection, accurate reporting and the development of treatment protocols and targeted intervention strategies were some of the many advantages that India could gain in its fight against cancer, if it were made a notifiable disease, the panelists said.