Cancer A disturbing trend in Mizoram
Lalnunmawii (name changed) lives in the Saron Veng locality of Mizoram’s capital, Aizawl. Of her eight siblings, three (two brothers and a sister) have fallen prey to cancer. One of her closest childhood friends died of stomach cancer in 2002. This woman’s husband had succumbed to oral cancer five years earlier. Another neighbour of Lalnunmawii, the sole breadwinner of the family, passed away battling oesophageal cancer in early 2002. Then there were the local tailor and his wife, who too became victims of the disease. There is hardly any family in the state that is not affected by cancer, points out Lalnunmawii. Data collected by researchers in Mizoram over a long period bears out this disturbing trend. Yet it is only now that the state is being put on the cancer map of India. Ironically, even the late inclusion has been necessitated by an Indian Council of Medical Research (icmr)-World Health Organization (who) project to develop a cancer atlas of the country