AGARTALA/AIZAWL: Incidence of cancer has been rising alarmingly in the hilly northeastern region of India, almost half the cases being attributed to consumption of tobacco products, experts say.
According to experts, Mizoram tops the rate of cancer patients with an incidence of 200 in 100,000 each year. Though other northeastern states have an average of 75 to 125 per 100,000, the numbers are higher than the national average.
Over 900,000 people fall victim to this dreaded disease every year in India, they note.
“Compared to 10 years back, the incidence of cancer is 20 to 30 percent higher in the northeastern region, where people have been leading a multifaceted lifestyle due to locational reasons,” they said.
Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) superintendent Gautam Mazumder told IANS: “Tobacco and dietary habits were among the main causes of cancer in the northeastern region.”
Tribals, who constitute 27 percent of the northeast’s total population of 45.50 million (2011 census) are traditionally heavy users of different types of tobacco products.According to the latest report of the union health and family welfare ministry, Mizoram (67.2 percent), Nagaland (56.8 percent) Tripura (55.9 percent) have the highest number of tobacco users in India, while, 34.6 percent of the adult Indian population is the national average for tobacco use.”Incidence of certain types of cancer like oesophagus, lung, mouth, breast and stomach was relatively higher in the northeast as compared to other parts of the country,” said Majumder, head of the RCC in Tripura.
Considering the high incidence of cancer cases here, the central government has been setting up at least one RCC in each of the eight states and upgrading the existing regional centres.
“The union health and family welfare ministry had already recognised Dr. B.B. Cancer Institute, Guwahati, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal (Manipur), Civil Hospital, Mizoram, and the cancer hospital in Agartala as RCCs to provide efficient and cost-effective treatment in the region,” a senior Tripura health department official says.
“Besides tobacco and diet habits, consumption of alcohol, pesticide traces in foodstuff and spicy foods were among the main causes of cancer in the region, well-known oncologist Partha Sarathy Sutradhar says.
“Awareness of the causes of cancer and early detection of the infection can reduce the number of cases of the deadly diseases,” Sutradhar told IANS. (IANS)