Growing Burden Of Head And Neck Cancer In India

Despite great advancements, the management of Head and Neck cancers still remains a problematic and intriguing issue due to the complex anatomy of the various sites.

- Dr Manbeena Chawla

The total burden of cancer across the globe is estimated to be around 22 million. Approximately 10 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed every year across the globe. Head and neck cancers account for more than half a million of the total cancer cases reported in India every year, putting India in the sixth place worldwide.

Dr Vikram Kekatpure, Senior Consultant Head & Neck Surgical Oncology, Cytecare Cancer Hospitals, Bengaluru, shared his concerns on the lack of appropriate guidelines for head and neck cancer treatment in India. “Majority of the head and neck cancers in India are in advanced stages. The kind of tumors we see here in India are at a way beyond stage seen in the US and Europe. Typically, cancer is categorized from stage 1 to stage 4, but we see cases which are termed between stage 6 to stage 10. There are no clear guidelines on how to go about with treating such advanced stages”, he said.

While head and neck cancers form one of the most common cancers in South and Southeast Asian countries, they form only 1–4 per cent of all cancers in the Western world.