4 of 5 Indian children do not survive cancer. What led to this sorry state?

India has the highest prevalence of childhood cancer which can be traced to its higher population of young people, 30 per cent of its population is below 14 years, according to 2011 Census.

How long does a cancer diagnosis take?

Six months, according to Bipin Jana, 45, whose eight-year-old son Parmeshwar has stage-4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. That is how long it took the family, travelling 2,000 km across West Bengal, New Delhi and finally, Mumbai, to get an effective diagnosis and start treatment.

Parmeshwar is currently undergoing chemotherapy at the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), Mumbai, India’s foremost cancer treatment centre. Almost half (43.6 per cent) of the children with cancer admitted here had to travel over 1,300 km to reach the hospital, records showed. Up to 10 per cent travelled over 2,200 km and 20 per cent had undergone alternative or incomplete treatments before reaching TMH.

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With timely diagnosis, children with cancer have a high rate of survival. If he lived in a high-income country, Parmeshwar would have had a 90 per cent chance of recovery. Since he is being treated, his odds are still better than India’s national survival rate for juvenile cancers--less than 20 per cent, according to the World Health Organization.

Worldwide, most children with cancer are from low- to middle-income countries and have poor survival rates, showed the study published in The Lancet Oncology, a global journal, in July 2019.

India has the highest prevalence of childhood cancer which can be traced to its higher population of young people, 30 per cent of its population is below 14 years, according to 2011 Census.

In order to understand why most children with cancer in India do not survive five years, IndiaSpend interviewed patients, non-governmental organisations and doctors. Delays in diagnosis, high medical expenses and non-completion of treatment are significant reasons, we found.

Survival rate can be 70 per cent with timely care

About 50,000 Indian children between 0-19 years of age suffer from cancer each year, according to The Lancet study we mentioned. “However we think the actual figure is closer to 75,000,” said Girish Chinnaswamy, head oncologist at the TMH.

Approximately 20,000 children remain undiagnosed and untreated and their survival rate is 0 per cent, he said. “For the 55,000 who are accessing treatment, 15,000 are receiving a good standard of treatment with trained oncologists as well as social, dietary and financial support and this group has a survival rate of 70 per cent,” he said.