The COVID-19 pandemic had a considerable impact on the cancer care facility with number of registration, diagnosis and treatment being badly hit at the State-run Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.
According to data from the institute, there was a 29% reduction observed in 2020 compared to 2019 in terms of new registrations. While follow-up visits were hit by 26%, the number of surgeries reduced by 42%. The number of radiotherapy fractions delivered and chemotherapy treatment fell by 14.5% and 38% respectively in this period.
“While a similar trend was observed in 2021 when compared to 2019, the scenario was a little better. Although services were available, there was a decrease in the number of patients seeking care for obvious reasons such as non-availability of transport, economic reasons arising due to the pandemic and lack of social or family support in seeking cancer care,” institute director C Ramachandra told The Hindu on Thursday.
New cancer cases
In Karnataka, an average of 78,381 new cases of cancers are being diagnosed every year as per population-based cancer registries. While the leading sites of cancers in males are lung (10.1%), stomach (6.9%) and prostate (6.4%); breast (27.9%), cervix (12%) and ovary (6.4%) are the leading cancers among women.
In 2020, breast cancer contributed 27.9% of the total burden in females, the highest among all cancers in Karnataka. “The fact that more young women are being diagnosed with breast cancer is a worrisome trend,” said Dr. Ramachandra, breast cancer specialist.
Annually, on an average there is a 1% increase in cancer cases in both males and females in Karnataka. A similar trend is observed in other metropolitan cities in India. “In Bengaluru, while prostate, colon, liver, brain, tongue, lung, lymphoma, mouth, esophagus, stomach cancers are increasing significantly among men, corpus uteri, lung, breast, colon, ovary, thyroid, stomach cancers are significantly increasing in women,” he said.
“We have seen a decline in mouth and cervical cancers in Bengaluru. However, childhood cancers are also seeing an increasing trend, mainly leukemia and lymphomas. Childhood (0-14 years) cancers constitute 7.9% of all cancers. In Bengaluru childhood cancer accounts for 2% of all cancers,” the doctor pointed out.
