Need for a comprehensive National Cancer Care Policy, says report
NEW DELHI: FICCI-EY Parthenon recently launched a compendium of recommendations titled ‘Road map for making Cancer care affordable and accessible in India’. The paper is a culmination of recommendations gathered from five regional roundtables organised over a year till September 2024, under the aegis of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI. Among these, there is a strong recommendation for the Government of India to roll out a comprehensive National Cancer Care Policy/Program with a dedicated funding outlay for the top six high-burden cancers.
The compendium highlights that India faces a sizeable cancer incidence burden. As per estimates India’s reported cancer incidence in 2022 was at 19 to 20 lakhs, whereas the real incidence was 1.5 to 3 times higher than the reported cases. The growth rate for cancer incidence is expected to further intensify over the next five to six years with new cases estimated to reach less than 45 lakh. The cancer care infrastructure is not equally distributed among rural and urban areas, leading to a huge burden on tertiary care centres. Further, treatment cost for cancer care is financially prohibitive i.e. almost 3x that of other non-communicable diseases (NCD) and continues to increase. Despite this, India’s participation in global clinical trials is currently 4 per cent, with 20 per cent of the global disease burden.
Dr Harsh Mahajan, Chair, FICCI Health Services Committee and Founder and Chairman, Mahajan Imaging Labs said, “With the aim to guide policy decision making on cancer control and care for the country, we organized these roundtables and discovered that while a lot of states have taken small steps towards cancer care enhancement and some have even piloted unique initiatives, there is still scope for broader measures aimed at proactive cancer prevention and treatments. This whitepaper is a blueprint of action for policymakers, healthcare providers, and the community at large to transform the cancer care paradigm in India.” he added.
Dr Raj Gore, Co-Lead of FICCI Task Force on Cancer Care & CEO, HCG, emphasized the urgent need to support women’s cancer care in India. “We must ensure every woman has equal access to quality healthcare and the ability to make informed decisions. This requires addressing key barriers such as low awareness, fear of screening, and financial limitations. Strengthening early detection and ensuring access to effective treatments are essential steps to improve outcomes and reduce the overall burden of cancer,” he added.
