New data on cancer trends in India shows an alarming 114 per cent rise in cancers of the lip and oral cavity in the last five years. This is according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a WHO body, that compiles and publishes cancer incidence and mortality data (Globocan) from 185 countries for 36 types of cancers. Globocan data shows a 15 per cent increase in the number of cancer cases, 12 per cent increase in the number of deaths, and a 10 per cent increase in breast cancer in the country in the last five years.
Experts attribute the big increase in cases of oral cancer to the practice of chewing tobacco and the high rate of consumption of Areca nut or supari. Though chewing betel nut has been a cultural practice for generations, it is contributing to oral cancers in the recent past because of increase in consumption.
“Earlier, people would crack the nut manually and consume limited quantities. With cheap and accessible packaged products such as sweet supari or pan masala, the consumption has increased manifold,” said Dr Ravi Mehrotra, Director, ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research. Despite the fact that oral malignancies have a longer latent period than other cancers, Mehrotra said, oral cancers were being seen more in younger people. This is because the age of exposure to these carcinogenic products had come down.
Mehrotra made these observations at an event to launch a special issue of the Indian Journal of Medical Research on smokeless tobacco.
Smokeless tobacco (SLT) is a global public health menace, being consumed by a whopping 360 million people across 140 countries in the world and causes more than 650,000 deaths globally. Almost 200 million people use SLT in India even as it kills about 350,000 Indians every year.
Given the lack of research on SLT in India (India’s contribution to global SLT literature is only 11.7 per cent of all publications), NICPR collaborated with the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR) to publish a special issue of the journal dedicated to SLT control.
“This is the first time anywhere in the world that a journal has published a special supplement on smokeless tobacco”, said Dr Balram Bhargava, Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research and Secretary, Department of Health Research, Union ministry of health and family welfare.
Other trends in cancer include the fact that prostate cancer is the third most common cancer in males in Delhi, although it does not figure in the top five cancers among males at the national level. Similarly, gall bladder cancer, which does not figure among the top five cancers at the national level, is the third commonest cancer in number of cases detected among females in Delhi.
Lung cancer — a cancer that is diagnosed at a later stage, and difficult to treat — has also emerged as the third most common cancer in the city, said Mehrotra.
