New Delhi: Breast cancer continues to be the leading form of cancer in India, affecting 1,92,020 women and killing 98,337 in the country in 2022 — the highest due to any type of cancer, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released Thursday.
The report by WHO’s International Agency for Research in Cancer (IARC) showed that a total of 14,13,316 new cancer cases were detected in the country while 9,16, 827 patients succumbed to the disease. Cancers of the breast, lip and oral cavity, cervix-uteri, lungs, and oesophagus were the top five cancers in India in 2022.
The total breast cancer cases in the country stood at 13.6 percent, followed by cancers of the lips and oral cavity (10.2 percent). Cervical cancer came next at 9 percent while a significant number of cases — 5.8 percent — were of lung cancer.
More women developed cancer than men in India in 2022 — 7,22,138 as against 6,91,178. For men, the leading sites of cancer were the lips and oral cavity, lung, and oesophagus while for women the sites included breasts, cervix, uteri, and ovary.
In 2022, the total five-year prevalence of cancer cases in India — that is, the number of people alive who have had cancer or a specific cancer diagnosis within the previous five years — was 32,58,518.
Globally, in 2022, there were an estimated 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths. The estimated number of people who were alive 5 years following a cancer diagnosis was 53.5 million, said the WHO.
About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime while approximately 1 in 9 men and 1 in 12 women die from the disease, the report said.
Lung cancer is the leading cancer worldwide
In contrast to India, globally, lung cancer was the most commonly occurring cancer with 2.5 million new cases — it accounted for 12.4 percent of the total new cases. Female breast cancer ranked came second (2.3 million cases, 11.6 percent), followed by colorectal cancer (1.9 million cases, 9.6 percent), prostate cancer (1.5 million cases, 7.3 percent), and stomach cancer (9,70,000 cases, 4.9 percent).
Lung cancer was also the leading cause of cancer deaths (1.8 million or 18.7 percent of the total cancer deaths) followed by colorectal (9,00,000 deaths, 9.3 percent), liver (7,60,000 deaths, 7.8 percent), breast (670,000 deaths, 6.9 percent) and stomach (6,60,000 deaths, 6.8 percent).
Lung cancer’s re-emergence as the most common cancer is likely related to persistent tobacco use in Asia, the WHO report said.
In India, deaths due to cancers of the oral cavity and cervix uteri are nearly equal — 79,979 and 79,906 — the survey said.
Cervical cancer is preventable through vaccination against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). In her interim budget Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the central government will “encourage” this vaccination for girls between 9 and 14 years of age.
The report also says that the cumulative risk for an individual developing cancer before the age of 75 years in India is 10.6 percent while the risk of dying from cancer before the age of 75 years is 7.2 percent.
It has predicted over 35 million new cancer cases in 2050 — a 77 percent increase from the estimated 20 million cases in 2022. Tobacco, alcohol, and obesity are key factors behind the increasing incidence of cancer, with air pollution still a key driver of environmental risk factors, the report has underlined.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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