While cancer incidence is on the rise the world over, the largest ever study of population-based survival trends between 2000 and 2014 published in The Lancet journal shows that survival for most cancers has been consistently high over the last 15 years in a handful of countries: the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden. It found that liver and lung cancers remain rapidly lethal in high- and low-income countries alike, but liver cancer survival increased by more than 10% in Korea (11% to 27%), Sweden (5% to 17%), Portugal (8% to 19%), and Norway (6% to 19%). Read | Throwing new light on possibilities of cancer treatment, research Similarly, lung cancer survival increased by 5-10% in 21 countries including the UK (7% to 13%) between 1995 and 2014, with most progress seen in China (8% to 20%), Japan (23% to 33%), and Korea (10% to 25%). For the first time, India is setting up its own population-based cancer survival programme across 28 registries in the country. Dr Prashant Mathur, director, National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, which manages the National Cancer Registry Programme, told The Indian Express that patients suffering from breast cancer, cancer of the cervix and head and neck cancer at these 28 cancer registries will be followed up for a five-year period. “We will collect data from patients with the cancer registries since 2012,” he said. Also Read | India ranks second in productivity losses due to cancer related deaths The CONCORD-3 study, published online on Tuesday, analysed individual patient records from 322 cancer registries in 71 countries and territories to compare five-year survival from diagnosis. It found wide variations. For example, for women diagnosed with breast cancer in the US and Australia between 2010 and 2014, five-year survival is 90%, compared to 66% for women diagnosed in India. Survival from rectal cancer was very low in India: 29%. The study pointed out that low survival has affected the development of a cancer strategy in several countries, including India. Lead author of the study, Dr Claudia Allemani, from the Cancer Survival Group at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, explained, “Governments must recognise cancer registries as efficient public health instruments that produce a continuous stream of valuable information on both impact of cancer prevention strategies and he effectiveness of health systems, and at very low cost.” Dr A Nandakumar, former director, National Cancer Registry Programme, also said providing accurate estimate of the burden of any disease in a developing country is a challenge. “Large parts of the Western world are completely covered by cancer registration. They have a robust system of registration and certification of cause of death. This helps to obtain accurate estimates of cancer mortality, and also provides population based cancer survival information.” In India, around 12 per cent of the population is covered by cancer registration.
