Population Based Cancer Registry of India – the Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Cancer is one of the important causes of morbidity and mortality in India. Globally, out of 14 million diagnosed<br />new cancer cases slightly more than 1 million were from India. Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs) plays<br />a vital role in formulating cancer control plans as well as in monitoring their success. The article identifies challenges<br />and opportunities for the PBCRs in India. Major challenges of PBCRs in India are-low coverage, urban dominance,<br />quality assurance in data, less awareness among rural people, lack of follow-up and survival data, timeliness, high<br />cost of registration, non-linkage of PBCR with other PBCRs and Hospital Based Cancer Registries (HBCRs) and<br />generalization of estimates at country level. Expansion of cancer atlas project, real time data collection, entering<br />Aadhar number (UID) during registration and establishing linkage among various PBCRs and PBCRs with HBCRs<br />will improve cancer registration and its quality on a short-term basis. However, the opportunity of development new<br />PBCRs in linkage with existing Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) will increase coverage as well<br />as sustainability of PBCRs in India.