Bengal will have more than 13,000 new cancer cases every year by 2025 compared with the figures in 2020, data published by the Indian Council of Medical Research shows.
Twenty per cent of the men among the new cancer patients in Bengal have lung cancer. Among women, breast cancer is most prevalent, while 6.6 per cent suffer from lung cancer.
Oncologists in Kolkata said air pollution, along with smoking, is a major factor for the high prevalence of lung cancer in the city and other parts of the state.
While 1,08,394 new cancer cases were diagnosed across Bengal in 2020, the figure is likely to go up to 1,21,639 in 2025, according to projections by the Profile of Cancer and Related Factors, Bengal, released by the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR) of the ICMR in Bangalore.
The projection was released by the end of September and is based on data collected between 2012 and 2015 for the population-based cancer registry. In Bengal, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) in Kolkata is one of the hosts of the registry.
The fact sheet published by the ICMR says in Bengal, prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer among men after lung cancer, followed by mouth, tongue and larynx cancer.
Among women, after breast cancer, cervical cancer is most prevalent, followed by ovarian, gall bladder and lung cancer.
“There are a lot of cancer cases due to smoking and chewing tobacco,” said Shyamsundar Mondal, principal investigator of the cancer registry in Bengal.
According to Mondol, the prevalence of lung cancer among men was around 17 per cent in the previous report of the registry, published in 2016.
The population-based cancer registry’s study in 2006-07 had showed that in Kolkata, 14.9 lung cancer cases were detected per one lakh people.
“Lung cancer has always been the leading cancer site for patients in Kolkata and Bengal. But what is alarming is the rise in its percentage,” said Mondal, who is the head of epidemiology and bio-statistics at CNCI.
“Although tobacco is still the main reason for lung and oral cancer, air pollution and carbon emission by vehicles are contributing to the rise,” said Gautam Mukhopadhyay, secretary of Bengal Oncology Foundation that works for cancer awareness.
Mohandas Mallath, senior consultant oncologist at Tata Medical Center, said some of the important factors for the rise in cancer cases were the rise in life expectancy and better techniques to diagnose the disease.
“A lot more people from the economically weaker section now come to hospitals because of the insurance scheme coverage,” said Mallath.