Chandigarh: At 90 cancer patients for every one lakh population, Punjab has a higher cancer rate than the country’s. The Malwa region in that state has the highest average of 136 cancer patients per 1 lakh people, according to a Punjab government study released on Monday. The national average is 80 cancer cases per lakh population. Data over the past five years show that on an average, 18 people die of cancer each day. There are 23,874 cancer patients in Punjab with 33,318 cancer-related deaths in last five years. What’s worse is that 84,453 people are suspected to be suffering from cancer, more than three times the confirmed cases. The Malwa region recorded a high of 107.4 cancer cases for every one lakh population. Muktsar district in Malwa has fared the worst with 136.3 patients per lakh. These figures came out after the state health department undertook a comprehensive door-to-door exercise for the first time. “I feel the country’s food bowl is paying the price for its productivity and a large number of cancer cases are due to excessive use of pesticides,” Punjab health minister Madan Mohan Mittal said. According to the report, the Malwa region with Bathinda, Mansa, Muktsar, Patiala, Sangrur among other districts recorded 107.4 cancer cases per lakh population as against the national figure of 80 per lakh population. Majha, with Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Taran Taran districts, recorded a low of 64.7 cancer cases per lakh population. The Doaba region which includes Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara and Kapurthala districts has 88.1 cancer patients per lakh population. Punjab health secretary Vini Mahajan said the figures recorded are based on patients’ own analysis. “These are figures where people themselves confirmed that they are suffering from cancer, or their relatives have died of it. We gave them a list of symptoms of cancer and 85,000 people who suspect they are suffering from the disease will now be made to undergo tests to confirm,” she said.