Proportion of all cancer cases higher in men: ICMR report

Childhood cancers constitute 7.9% of all cancers, says the study.

The highest proportion of cancer from all sites was reported in the 45 to 64 years age group. Image used for representation

The proportion of all cancer cases was higher in males (52.4%) than females (47.4%) with gynaecological cancers, including breast cancer, comprising over half of all cancers in females. Childhood (0-14 years) cancers constitute 7.9% of all cancers, noted the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) ‘Clinicopathological Profile of Cancers in India: A Report of the Hospital Based Cancer Registries, 2021’ released on Sunday.

The report said that cancers of the head and neck region accounted for nearly one third (31.2%) of the cancers among males. The highest proportion of cancer from all sites was reported in the 45 to 64 years age group, except for prostate cancer in males, which was higher in those over 65 years.

For the report, a total of 13,32,207 cancer cases were registered from 96 hospitals under the National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) during 2012-19. Of these, 6,10,084 cases were included for analysis, based on the completeness and quality of data.

The report further states that out of the 6,10,084 cancers, 3,19,098 (52.4%) cancers were reported in males, and 2,90,986 (47.6%) in females. Cancers in sites associated with tobacco use comprised 48.7% of cancers among males and 16.5% among females.

“The relative proportion of site-specific cancers was higher in males than females, except for thyroid cancer (2.5% in females versus 1% in males) and gallbladder cancer (3.7% in females versus 2.2 % in males),” notes the report.

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The report states that over one-third of patients with cancers of the tongue, larynx, thyroid, corpus uteri, kidney (including children), bladder and retinoblastoma had localised disease at the time of presentation.

“Chemotherapy was the most typical treatment modality for many cancers regardless of the clinical extent of disease at presentation, including cancers of the liver, gallbladder, stomach, lung and childhood cancers and regardless of the organ site and clinical extent, most cancer patients, were initiated on cancer-directed treatment within 8 to 30 days of diagnosis,” states the report.

Also, over half the patients with cancer of the brain and nervous system, and about one-third of the patients of lung, prostate, bladder and thyroid cancer with localised disease diagnosed at the reporting institution, were initiated on cancer directed treatment on the same day.