New cancer cases are expected to reach around 1.9 million in the year 2035, government today said.
At the same time, mortality due to cancer cases is estimated to be at 0.8 million, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
"As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), based upon the data provided by National Cancer Registry Programme, the estimated number of incidence (new cancer cases) for the year 2035 is about 1.9 million (based on reports on Time Trend in Cancer Incidence Rates 1982-2010 and 2009-2011 Population Based Cancer Registry Reports)," he said.
According to the data provided by ICMR, the mortality due to cancer cases is estimated to be 0.8 million for the year 2035.
He said that there was no central data available to ascertain the quantum of shortage of cancer specialists in the country.
However, to increase the number of seats in Super Speciality course in Medical Onology, Surgical Oncology and broad speciality courses in Radiotherapy, the ratio of number of Post Graduate (PG) teachers to the number students to be admitted has now been increased to 1:3 for a professor subject to a maximum 6 PG seats per unit per academic year, he said.
He said that while Human Resource Development is also in focus under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY), the National Cancer Institute at Jhajjar and second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata also have a mandate for capacity building.
The mandate of State Cancer Institutes (SCI) and Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCC) supported under National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke (NPCDCS) includes enhancing of trained manpower for cancer, he added.
