Childhood cancer is curable if it is detected in time, said Prof (Dr) Manas Kalra, Senior Consultant, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. Speaking to Kavita Bajeli-Datt, he said India needs a dedicated childhood cancer policy to meet the WHO’s Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer goal of 60% survival by 2030. Edited excerpts:
Is childhood cancer incidence rising in India? What is the reason?
Yes, the reported numbers are rising. Part of this is a true increase, but a large part is better detection – more paediatric oncology centres, wider awareness, and improved diagnostic access mean cases that once went unrecorded are now being picked up. Unlike adult cancers, lifestyle factors play little role here – most childhood cancers arise from genetic changes in early development, not something a family did or didn’t do.
Can childhood cancer be cured?
Childhood cancer is one of the great success stories of modern medicine – and also one of its great unfinished stories. Many childhood cancers are highly curable when caught early and treated properly; a leukaemia that would have been a death sentence 40 years ago is cured in the vast majority of children in the right setting. WHO’s own numbers capture the divide starkly: cure rates above 80% in high-income countries, versus under 30% in many low and middle income countries – a gap driven almost entirely by access and drug availability, not biology. India sits uncomfortably in the middle of that gap. Our leading centres now match global cure rates for common cancers like acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Still, the national average is dragged down by late diagnosis, treatment abandonment, and uneven access outside major cities.
As I often tell parents: “This is not a cancer we manage – it’s a cancer we can cure. The tragedy is when a child doesn’t get the chance.” That, in many ways, is the real Indian story of childhood cancer.
