NEW DELHI – Tata Memorial Hospital, Lancet, Centre for Global Health Research and University of Toronto jointly releases study findings on cancer mortality in India in 2010. The findings are:
There were 5.56 (556,000)lakh cancer deaths in India in 2010. 71% (3.95 lakhs) of these deaths occurred in people aged 30-69 years (2 lakh men and 1.95 lakh women). Cancer deaths accounted for 6% of deaths across all ages, but among the 30-69 years age group, this rose to 8% of the 2.5 million total male deaths and 12% of the 1.6 million total female deaths.
At 30-69 years, the three most common fatal cancers in men were: oral (including lip and pharynx, 45,800 (23%), stomach 25,200 (13%) and lung (including trachea and larynx) 22,900 (11%).
For women, the leading causes of cancer death were cervical 33,400 (17%), stomach 27,500 (14%), and breast 19,900 (10%) cancers in women. Tobacco-related cancers represented 42% (84000) of male and 18.3% (35,700) of female cancer deaths at ages 30-69 years. There were twice as many deaths from oral cancers as lung cancers, in part due to common use of chewing tobacco in men and women.
The number of oral cancers was more than twice the number of lung cancers in individuals aged 30-69 years, indicating that the range of fatal cancers caused by tobacco in India differs substantially from that in high-income countries. A 30-year old man in northeastern India had the highest chance (11·2%) of dying from cancer before 70 years of age.
By contrast, the risk was less than 3% for men in the adjacent states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odissa in eastern India. For women, the highest risk (6%) of dying from cancer before 70 years of age was in the northeastern states.
