Campaign launched to urge government to classify cancer as a notifiable disease in India

Apollo Cancer Centres in Chennai launch 'Unify to Notify' campaign urging government to classify cancer as notifiable disease.

The Apollo Cancer Centres in Chennai, in collaboration with three Tamil Nadu-based oncology medical associations, launched a nationwide campaign, ‘Unify to Notify’, on Tuesday February 4, to urge the government to classify cancer as a notifiable disease. February 4 is observed as World Cancer Day.

A panel discussion, ‘Making Cancer a Notifiable Disease Nationally’, was organised on the occasion of the launch of the campaign, to highlight the importance of this issue. India currently reports around 14 lakh new cancer cases annually, and the burden is expected to rise in the coming years. While several States (including Tamil Nadu) have made cancer a notifiable disease, this move has not yet been taken up by several other States, hampering access to data that would present a full picture of the scale of cancer in the country, the panellists pointed out.

The population-based cancer registries currently available in India, represent less than 10% of the population, pointed out Balasundaram. V., president, Association of Radiation Oncologists of India (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry chapter), one of the collaborating partners in the initiative, highlighting the need for data to be able to set up cancer facilities in the locations in they were required and for decisions to allocate funds where most needed. S. Ayyappan, secretary, T.N. Association of Surgical Oncology, said data about tumours, how they were treated, and the outcomes of this treatment would help doctors make decisions about care, and eventually lead to standardisation of cancer care across the country.

Kalaichelvi K., president, Tamil Nadu Medical and Paediatric Oncologist Society, said making cancer notifiable would help find out the exact incidence in various States, help identify common etiological agents and thereby, help with rolling out screening programmes, prevention strategies and the stocking of drugs. Suresh S., senior consultant, medical oncology, Apollo Cancer Centre, Vanagaram and Prasad Eswaran, Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre were among the other participants in the discussion moderated by Sankar Srinivasan, Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology, Apollo Cancer Centre, Teynampet.