New Delhi: To tackle geographical variations in the cancer incidence in India, a Parliamentary Committee on Health and Family Welfare has recommended the government to encourage region-based cancer research projects to understand the causes of specific cancer in a specific region to chalk out a localised cancer treatment plan.
"Cancer research projects should also cover studies on the different occurrences of cancer in rural and urban areas and provide key solutions to the increasing incidence of cancer cases in rural areas," the report of the Committee led by Rajya Sabha MP Ram Gopal Yadav said.
Mouth and tongue cancer are prevalently observed in cancer registries of western and central India. The occurrence of mouth cancers is high in areas covered by the registry in Gujarat among men and Madhya Pradesh tops in tongue cancers prevalence among women.
This is followed by Maharashtra and Meghalaya which report a high incidence rate in mouth and tongue cancers among both genders while the rest of the regions registered very less number of cases. While Nagaland recorded high incident rate of nasopharyngeal cancer north and eastern regions report high incidence of gallbladder cancer.
"Earlier records have drawn our attention to a relatively high frequency of gallbladder cancer in a geographical band of high risk, extending from Punjab in the west, through to West Bengal in the east and on into the Northeast. As per recent reports, cities in northern river plains (Delhi) and those along the river Brahmaputra (Kamrup-Assam) have recorded a higher number of gallbladder cancer," the report said. Thyroid cancer is more prevalent among women and is reported a relatively higher incidence in the northeastern states and southwest state -Kerala, it added.
Also read: Research: Walking 10,000 steps per day reduces risk of dementia, cancer
The cancer registries of Mizoram, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Assam in the Northeastern states show clear geographic correlation with stomach and esophageal cancers (in both genders), according to the Committee's report.
In adolescents and young adults (AYA) (15-39 years age group), the prevalence is about 22 cases per 100,000 males and 29.2 per 100,000 females during 2012-2016. The relative proportion of AYA cancers to all cancers was the highest for males in Nagpur (17.7 percent) and females in Nagaland (26.9 percent).
