Cancer cases go up by over 200 per cent in Kerala

As per the figures released by the 'Hospital Based Cancer Registry' (HBCR) of Regional Cancer Centre here, a premier hospital which handles more than one third of cancer cases in the state, 2,49,362 patients visited RCC seeking treatment in the last 30 years.

The number of patients who approached the RCC for treatment

in 2011 alone was 14,016 against 3,696 in 1982, it said.

HBCR was established in 1982 as part of the National Network for Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council for Medical Research to collect information on cancer patients reporting to the centre.

According to the HBCR data, breast and thyroid cancer are found to have been more prevalent among women. Though the cancer of uterine cervix has declined in the last 30 years, the number of breast cancer cases have shot up alarmingly, especially among youngsters, it said.

A total of 28.1 per cent of all cancer cases reported among women in the hospital were breast cancer, it said.

Oral cancer continued to be more predominant among men than other forms of cancer like those affecting prostate, rectum and thyroid.

The incidence of lung cancer among men registered a marginal increase from 11.9 per cent in 1982 to 13.6 per cent in 2011, while the number of oral cancer patients declined from 29.3 per cent to 13.9 per cent the same period, it said.

A striking trend that happened over the years is the increase of leukaemia cases among both men and women, the data showed.