Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre & Research Institute Releases ANNUAL CANCER REPORT
RAJKUMAR DAS
In the COVID affected world, cancer screening and treatment reduced by and the post-COVID period shows that the numbers have gone up. In 2021, India had an estimated 1.9-2 million cancer cases.According to a report by the Indian Council for Medical Research on the ‘Burden of cancers in India’, seven cancers accounted for more than 40% of the total disease burden: lung (10.6%), breast (10.5%), esophagus (5.8%), mouth (5.7%), stomach (5.2%), liver (4.6%) and cervix uteri (4.3%).The number of cases is expected to be around 2-3 million by 2025. In 2020-21, the diagnosis and treatment of cancer was adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Reduced access to care because of health care setting closures and fear amongst the public resulted in delays in diagnosis and treatment that may lead to a short-term drop in cancer incidence followed by an uptick in advanced-stage disease and, ultimately, increased mortality. In India, cancer mortality is at 8,08,558 for 2022 i.e. 55 per cent of the new cases reported and as many as 0.2 million people lost their lives due to cancer. Only about 46% of cancer cases were registered in the 2019-2022 timeline.
In the present scenario of the rising cancer burden, Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre & Research Institute today launched the Annual Cancer Report and spoke on an unusual case study of Laparotomy that was treated and other such cases at the hospital. The report highlights data specific to the increase in cases as observed by research conducted at the hospital during COVID, pre and the post time period.
Dr Arnab Gupta, Director, Saroj Gupta Cancer Centre & Research Institute said during the launch of the annual report “The statistics of the detected cases in the pre-COVID period was close to 6000of which treated cases reached the 4000 mark. The most common cancers are breast, lung, colon and rectum and prostate cancers. In the past three years, the cases of biopsies came down from 605 to 205 and GI surgery cases dropped to 197.The number of breast surgery conducted was185 in 2019-2020 and came down to 158 in 2020-22. The annual report is in-depth and gives an insight on the cancer cases and treatment scenario that the hospital has observed during the COVID pandemic and after the effects.The attention should be on awareness by stressing the need for cancer screening and prevention.The numbers came down during the COVID and the post-COVID scenario since Cancer screening and detection was not paid much attention to. Most times the cases went unregistered.”
On the occasion, Dr Subrata Sahu, Consultant Surgical Oncologist at the SGCCRI explained about an unusual case of Huge Abdominal Lump that was treated via Laparotomy. The patient was initially admitted to another hospital with the same complaints and was referred to a higher centre for further management, as there was a risk of imminent death. He said, “Initially, it was suspected that the patient had stage III or IV lung cancer, but proper examination of the lump mass revealed a benign tumor involving the whole of the abdomen and pelvis, and life-threatening complications. There was a cystic tumour which contained about 40 litres of fluid. Everything was removed and sent for pathological examinations.After surgery, her systemic functions and health condition gradually improved. She was ultimately discharged on the 14th post-op day with good physical status.”
India has a poor cancer detection rate of around 29%, with only 20 to 30 percent of cases being diagnosed at stage I and II, respectively.The cancer patients in India get diagnosed in advanced stages (Stage III/IV) thereby requiring multiple modalities of treatment resulting in longer and expensive treatment.DrArnab Gupta emphasized on preventive screening programs for early screening and faster treatment.
