Cancer in kids rising, leukaemia rampant 

The instances of childhood cancer may be increasing in India, with more boys-as compared to girls, falling prey to it, a report prepared by the ICMR suggested. 
(For representational purposes.)
(For representational purposes.)

NEW DELHI:  The instances of childhood cancer may be increasing in India, with more boys-as compared to girls, falling prey to it, a report prepared by the ICMR suggested.  The report ‘Clinicopathological profile of cancers in India, 2021’ is based on a total of 13,32,207 cancer cases were registered from 96 hospitals under the National Cancer Registry Programme during 2012-19.  

Of these, 6,10,084 cases were analysed showing that cancers in those aged 0-14 years comprised nearly 8 % of all the cases during the seven-year period. Between 2012 and 14, the share of Under-15 was less than 5 %.  Leukaemia accounted for nearly half of all the childhood cancers in both genders in the 0-14 age group. While the other common childhood cancer in boys was lymphoma, malignant bone tumour reported widely in girls.  

Also, close to 70 % of the kidney cancer cases were reported in the age group of 0-4 years and over one third of cancers of the brain and nervous system were reported in the age group of 5-9 years.  Overall for all age groups, the cancers associated with tobacco use comprised 48.7 % of cases among males and 16.5 % among females. Cancers of head and neck region accounted for one third of all cases.  

Chemotherapy was the most typical treatment modality regardless of the clinical extent of disease at the presentation. Last year, nearly 14 lakh new cases were detected in the country, marking a rise of about 16 %as compared to the 2018 figures. 

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