According to WHO Southeast Asia, 67% of cancer
patients in the South-East Asia die before the age of 70 years.
In 2018, 18.1 million new cases of cancer were
diagnosed globally while 9.6 million people succumbed to the disease- 70% of
which occurred in low and middle income countries.
Availability of cancer treatment services is abysmally
low with only 30% of low income countries providing treatment facilities.
26% of low-income countries provide pathology
services at public hospitals, the absence of which leads to late diagnosis and
a lower chance of successful treatment.
According to National Institute of Cancer
Prevention and Research (NICPR), India, a) one woman dies of cervical cancer
every eight minutes in India, b) for every two women newly diagnosed with
breast cancer, one woman dies of it, c) 2,500 persons die every day due to
tobacco-related diseases, d) more than 3 lakh people died of tobacco use in
2018.
Effective cancer screening is the first step
towards successful treatment and necessitates cancer screening services to be made
available at primary and secondary healthcare facilities in India.