Three out of five cancer patients in India die, women at high risk: ICMR

India's premier medical panel has revealed that three in five people die of cancer after being diagnosed.

The latest report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), published in The Lancet, has found that there has been a surge in cancer incidence, more in women than men, in the past decade, and this trend will continue to rise in the coming two decades, the researchers wrote, based on the figures presented by the Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCON) 2022 estimates.

"Approximately three out of every five individuals in India succumb to death following a cancer diagnosis, as per the GLOBOCAN 2022 incidence (1,413,316) to mortality (916,827) ratio," researchers noted in The Lancet study.

GLOBOCON is an online database that provides estimates of incidence, mortality, and prevalence for 36 cancer types, including non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), for 185 countries or territories worldwide.

The ICMR study, using the GLOBOCON data, showed that India is ranked third in cancer incidence globally, after the US and China, and second in mortality after China. While women are more affected by breast cancer, lung cancer causes the most deaths in both genders.

However, India's high population makes its overall cancer rate appear lower than it actually is. Older adults face a much higher risk than younger people, and since India's younger population will age in the coming decades, cancer rates are expected to rise, the researchers wrote.

The analysis noted that in India, childhood and



reproductive age group individuals are at the lowest risk of developing and dying from cancer, compared to middle-aged and geriatric age groups.

"This data demonstrates that in the coming years, India may face a formidable cancer burden. Multijoinpoint trend analysis of past mortality patterns indicates that cancer mortality rates in India are on the rise for the last two decades. "Alarmingly, cancer deaths are increasing faster among females (1.2–4.4% per year) than males (1.2–2.4% per year)," the authors wrote.

They predict that mortality rates are expected to rise from 64.7 to 109.6% between 2022 and 2050. The comprehensive study examined 36 types of cancer by gender, and across four distinct age groups (childhood, reproductive age, middle age, and geriatric age) in India.

Between 2012 and 2022, cancer incidence increased by 36%, rising from 1.01 million in 2012 to 1.38 million in 2022. Similarly, cancer-related deaths also exhibited a rise of 30.3%, increasing from 0.68 million in 2012 to 0.89 million in 2022.

"With a significant portion (70%) of cancer incidences and mortalities concentrated in the middle-aged and geriatric age groups, the country is poised to face a formidable challenge in the coming years due to the transition of the current reproductive-age population to the middle-aged and geriatric groups," the authors wrote.

According to the authors, the findings of the study highlight the pressing need to create focused interventions and strategies to address the escalating cancer burden in India.