WHO's Revelation On Breast Cancer Rise In India Raises Concerns

Breast cancer is the leading cause of fatalities in India in 2022. It has affected 1,92,020 women in India and has killed 98,337 in the country in the year 2022. Cancer of the breast, lip and oral cavity, cervix-uteri, lungs, and oesophagus are the top five cancers affecting people in India.

On February 1, the WHO's International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC) released a report that examined the prevalence of cancer in India and the world in the year 2022. As per the report, 14,13,316 new cancer cases were detected in India in 2022 and 9,16, 827 patients succumbed to their illness. 

13.6 per cent of the total cancer cases in India were of breast cancer while 10.2 per cent of them were cancers of the lips and oral cavity. Cervical cancer accounted for 9 per cent of the total cancer cases and lung cancer stood at 5.8 per cent. The number of women affected by cancer (7,22,138) was higher than the number of men affected by cancer (6,91,178).

Recognising this, the Indian government is making efforts to tackle this burgeoning concern. In India, cervical cancer is preventable through Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. While announcing the Interim Budget 2024 earlier this week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the central government will be encouraging the vaccination of girls ages 9 to 14 years to prevent cervical cancer.

Moreover, according to recent reports, the Tamil Nadu government is taking the initiative to screen women over 30 years for breast and cervical cancer. They are also screening men and women for oral cancer, which is another deadly disease affecting India. The deaths caused due to oral cavity and cervix uteri cancers are nearly equal- 79,979 and 79,906.  In 2022, the number of people alive who have had cancer in the previous five years was 32,58,518.

Prevalence of cancer on the global level

The report also revealed that on the global level, 20 million new cancer cases have been detected in the year 2022. Moreover, 9.7 million deaths have also been reported.  

Furthermore, 1 in 5 people are affected by cancer in their lifetime. Moreover, approximately, 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die after the diagnosis.

The report revealed that lung cancer was the most prevalent cancer globally. With 2.5 million new cases, lung cancer accounted for 12.4 per cent of the total new cases. Breast cancer was ranked second with 2.3 million cases accounting for 11.6 percent of the total cases. Next was colorectal cancer with 1.9 million cases which was equal to 9.6 percent of the total cancer cases. Prostate cancer with 1.5 million cases came next as it formed 7.3 percent of the total cancer cases. Lastly, with 9,70,000 cases, stomach cancer accounted for 4.9 per cent of the total cancer cases. 

As per the report, globally, lung cancer was the leading cause of death too. It caused 1.8 million deaths which was equal to 18.7 percent of the total cancer deaths. This was followed by colorectal cancer which caused 9,00,000 deaths, 9.3 per of the total cancer deaths. Next was liver cancer which caused 7,60,000 deaths which was equal to 7.8 percent of the total deaths. Breast cancer caused 670,000 deaths which accounted for 6.9 per cent of the total cancer deaths and stomach cancer stood at 6,60,000 deaths or 6.8 percent of the total cancer deaths.

Reasons behind the emergence of lung cancer

Tobacco use was cited as the major reason behind the re-emergence of lung cancer as the most common cancer globally. It also said that Tobacco combined with alcohol, obesity and increasing air pollution are the major reasons behind the increasing rates of diagnosis and deaths by cancer. 

The report also mentioned that by 2050, 35 million new cancer cases will be diagnosed causing a 75 per cent increase from the 20 million cases in 2022.