NEW DELHI: With the National Cancer Registry Programme covering only a fraction of India’s population and rural cancer surveillance remaining particularly limited, the Supreme Court has stepped up efforts to bring greater uniformity to cancer reporting. The court on Tuesday asked the 19 States and Union Territories that have not yet notified cancer as a notifiable disease to consider doing so, a move that could make reporting of newly detected cases to public health authorities mandatory.Such notification could help plug gaps in cancer surveillance by giving health authorities a more complete picture of the country’s cancer burden, including where cases are rising and which populations are most affected. The data could in turn help shape policies on prevention, early detection, treatment capacity and allocation of healthcare resources.A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant passed the order on a plea filed by a retired AIIMS doctor after his lawyer Gaurav Bansal told the court that NCRP covers only 10% of population and rural coverage is less than 1%.The push assumes greater significance against the backdrop of the WHO’s latest Global Status Report on Cancer, which estimates that 92% of people globally will be affected by cancer either directly or through a close family member. The report also projects annual cancer cases to rise to nearly 35 million by 2050.The Supreme Court was informed that 17 of India’s 36 States and UTs have already notified cancer, following recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare. The remaining 19 have now been asked to consider similar action.
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Dr Pragya Shukla, Head of Clinical Oncology at Delhi State Cancer Institute, said standardised, disease-specific and timely data was essential to track India’s changing cancer burden, identify regional and demographic trends, and assess the impact of prevention and treatment programmes. Such a system, she said, would complement existing cancer registries, help identify high-burden areas, improve planning for treatment infrastructure and medicines, and strengthen evidence-based cancer control. Govil added that reliable data would be critical for planning prevention, early detection and resource allocation.The Indian Cancer Society welcomed the intervention, saying national notification could help build a comprehensive cancer surveillance system. “The Supreme Court’s intervention is a significant development, and we welcome its direction to the remaining States and Union Territories to move towards cancer notification,” said Jyotsna Govil, Chairperson, Indian Cancer Society, Delhi. However, she stressed that notification alone would not suffice and called for a uniform national framework with common definitions, reporting standards and data protocols to ensure comparable and interoperable data across states.
