Vineet Gupta, Director- Government Affairs, Varian Medical Systems highlights that the government needs to create a holistic programme to provide cancer care infrastructure in 300 to 400 districts over a period of 4-5 years
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in our country today after cardiovascular diseases. More than 1.4 million cancer cases and over 800,000 deaths are recorded in our country every year. With 95 per cent of care centres present in urban areas and 70 per cent of the population still living in villages, access to cancer care is a challenge. This leads to late detection and diagnosis, resulting in high number of cancer death.
There are three main pillars of cancer treatment – surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Globally, nearly 50 per cent of the cancer patients have access to radiation therapy, however, in India, these figures stand at 18 to 20 per cent. As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, India needs one linear accelerator per million population. Linear accelerator is an equipment which is used to give radiation therapy.
In India, there are around 700 clinically commissioned linear accelerators, out of which 85 per cent are in the private sector. These facilities are only available in around 120 districts, serving just 20 per cent of the population. As patients have to travel to urban centres a number of times to access radiation therapy, many do not complete their treatment course due to financial constraints. This adds to the country’s economic burden.
The government plays a major role in making cancer care facilities available and accessible to a larger population. The government needs to create a holistic programme to provide cancer care infrastructure in 300 to 400 districts over a period of 4-5 years. This can be achieved via hub and spoke model. The government further needs to collaborate with private players for setting up radiation therapy centres. It can create a policy paper, listing down the guidelines for setting up radiation therapy centres. The success of such PPP (Public-Private Partnership) models has been observed in the diagnostics and pathology spaces.
Linear accelerators are currently being imported, making cancer treatment expensive. The government can come up with a centralised procurement programme to make cancer care more affordable. It can also take measures under the Make in India initiative to encourage local manufacturing of the equipment.
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