At least 10-12 children per 10,000 population will develop cancer in India annually. Out of 60,000 children afflicted with this disease, only one out of 10 receives complete therapy. According to researchers with the new Lancet Oncology series published on Tuesday, the burden is likely to increase if cases are not detected early.
Even as the new series has sent messages to various governments to develop strategies for childhood cancer, for the first time the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research in Bangalore will come out with a report on the incidence of different types of childhood cancers in India. Dr A Nandakumar, director in charge of the centre, said that leukaemias, lymphomas and retinoblastomas are very common in India.