Major regional disparity in overcoming cancer though survival rates are up: study

Subject: Science and Tech

Section: Health

Context:

Roughly 52% of cervical cancer cases diagnosed between 2012 and 2015 survived, according to a study published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia, based on data from Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs) across India.

Report findings:

Research conducted by: National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research.
It is a notable improvement (52%) of approximately 6% compared to the previous SurvCan survey-3, where the survival rate was recorded at 46%.
Various urban PBCRs from different regions of India were assessed to find the survival rates of cervical cancer patients and it was found that there was significant variation in survival rates across these regions.
Among those that participated in the study, Ahmedabad’s urban PBCR demonstrated the highest survival rate at 61.5%, followed by Thiruvananthapuram with 58.8% and Kollam at 56.1% and in contrast, Tripura reported the lowest survival rate at 1.6%.
Survival rates were lower in India’s northeastern region, particularly in PBCRs in Tripura, Pasighat and Kamrup urban.
Factors including access to diagnostic services, effective treatment varied across the population, distance from clinical care facilities, travel costs, co-morbidities, and poverty contributed to survival rates.

Cervical Cancer:

Cervical cancer is a growth of cells that starts in the cervix. The cervix is the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina. Various strains of the human papillomavirus(HPV) play a role in causing most cervical cancers.

Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs):

National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) commenced as a long term activity of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with a network of cancer registries across the country in December 1981.
Three Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCR) at Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai started functioning in January 1982.Three Hospital Based Cancer Registries (HBCR) at Chandigarh, Dibrugarh and Thiruvananthapuram were initiated in the same year.
PBCRs systematically collect data on all new cases of cancer occurring in a well defined population from multiple sources of registrations (SoR) such as Government Hospitals, Private Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Clinics, Diagnostic Labs, Imaging centres, Hospices and Registrars of Births & Deaths.
ICMR-NCDIR coordinates the activities of the PBCRs. ICMR-NCDIR offers training, technical support, data evaluation and analytics to PBCRs for reporting the incidence, trends and patterns of cancer in the PBCR coverage areas and for India.

Source: TH