Kerala cancer care projects rest on papers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two ambitious programmes for making cancer care available in all districts, have not taken off yet. Former chief minister Oommen Chandy had announced cancer treatment in all district hospitals during his Independence Day speech in 2014.  Two years have passed and the next Independence Day is round the corner, but the plans remain on paper. There were also proposals for opening mini cancer centres in all government medical colleges.

Of the 18 district hospitals in the state, only a couple of them have specialist and infrastructure facilities for treating cancer. While radiotherapy is the main treatment modality for most solid tumours and a majority of patients need radiotherapy alone or in combination with surgery and chemotherapy, most hospitals don't have Cobalt or linear accelerator and brachytherapy machines. Even nuclear medicine which is crucial for treating thyroid, goitre, cancer thyroid have to be developed in these hospitals.

Separate medical oncology departments fully equipped with latest treatment modalities and facilities for proper diagnosis of cancers through pathology, radio diagnosis and imaging and nuclear medicine are needed. The need for more mini cancer centres, cancer care facilities in government hospitals have been felt like never before because of the growing incidence of cancer. According to estimates, there are more than 2.5 lakh cancer patients in the state and each year 55,000 people are being detected with various types of cancers.

RCC and Malabar Cancer Centre are unable to cater to the patient rush. Experts say cancers of  breast, thyroid, prostate, ovaries are increasing if the cases coming to RCC and other centres are any indication. Moreover, more than 100 new cancer patients are being detected in hospitals across the state. Breast cancer is also on the rise and now found even among very young women. The age of women with breast cancer has come down from 45 to 25 which according to doctors, is an alarming sign.