35 million new cancer case projected by 2050 in India: Dr Harinderpal Singh

Chandigarh: To create awareness on ‘Rising trend of cancer cases in India’, a team of experts from PARK Hospital, Mohali including, Dr. Sandeep Kukkar, director-medical oncology, Dr Harinderpal Singh, director-medical oncology, Dr Vijay Jagad, senior consultant-surgical oncology, Dr Jobanjit Kaur consultant-radiation oncology and Dr Arnav Tiwari, consultant- radiation oncology addressed a press conference here on Friday.
Dr Sandeep Kukkar said,” In India, 30 lakh people suffer from cancer with 15.6 lakh new cases and cancer kills 8.7 lakh people each year. Breast & cervical cancers are the most common cancers in females and lung & liver common cancers in Indian males. Few decades back, breast cancer was seen only after fifty years of age, and the number of young women suffering from this disease were lesser with almost 65% to 70% patients above 50 years and only 30%-35% women below 50 years of age,”
Ironically, breast cancer is more common in the younger age group and over 70% of the cases are present in advanced stage accounting for poor survival and high mortality.
Dr Harinderpal Singh said that one third of the cancers can be prevented by lifestyle modification.
Breast self-examination and mammography is a noble technique to deduct breast cancer cases at early stages and simple investigations like chest X-ray & PSA can help in picking up lung cancer & prostate cancer in early stages respectively, he informed.
According to Dr Vijay Jagad, breast cancer, which is on a steady rise, has now overtaken cervical cancer as the most common and deadly killer disease of the new era.  Breast cancer impacts 2.1 million women each year and India sees 2.20 lakh new cases every year.
Dr Jagad further said that robotic onco surgery is a much better option than open surgery for various body tumors including esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, uterine cancer and rectal cancer. Less pain, shorter hospital stay, faster recovery, no blood loss and improved cosmesis are some main advantages of robotic surgery, he said.
The number of new cases of cancer is expected to rise by about 12% to 18 % by 2026 as compared to 2020, said Dr Jobanjit Kaur.
Dr Arnav Tiwari said that India continues to report the highest prevalence of oral cancers globally with 1.75 lakh new cases of such cancers reported every year. Chewing tobacco and gutkha contributes to 90 percent of oral cancer cases in the country.