Pune: Maharashtra , which has the largest cancer burden in the country, is yet to make cancer a notifiable disease . Of the 28 states in India, only 15 have declared cancer as a notifiable disease, despite the parliamentary board’s recommendation. This means that every cancer patient undergoing treatment in a private or public hospital must be registered with the govt’s database.
This database helps the govt to ensure enough healthcare workforce , funds, and machinery in the public healthcare sector. However, without this database, the health policies around cancer are like a shot in the dark. The first state to make cancer a notifiable disease was Tripura in 2008, with latest addition being Andhra Pradesh, the 15th state, in 2022.
In 2008, the Indian Council of Medical Research ( ICMR ) recommended making cancer a notifiable disease in the country. However, in the past 16 years, only 15 states out of 28 have made it notifiable. According to a 2021 ICMR report, Maharashtra’s population-based cancer registry covers eight cities and districts, while the hospital-based cancer registry covers only five hospitals.
The national population-based cancer registry (PBCR) programme in the state collects data from eight regions — Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Beed, Barshi Rural, Mumbai, Pune, Wardha, and Nagpur, while the hospital-based registry includes data from five hospitals, of which two are from Mumbai, including Tata Memorial Centre, Ahmednagar, Kolhapur, and Nagpur.The state als.