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Improving Cancer care in rural India

By Akshat Jain posted 04-18-2014 10:41

  

Cancer and cancer related complications are emerging as major public health problems in developing countries like India. It is estimated that about 9 million new cancer cases are diagnosed every year and over 4.5 million people die from cancer each year in the world.

In developed countries it is the second most common cause of death, and epidemiological evidence points to the emergence of a similar trend in developing countries. The estimated number of new cancers in India per year is about 700,000 and over 350,000 people dieof cancer each year.

In 2010 alone 556,400 national cancer deaths in were reported. 395,400 cancer deaths occurred in people aged 30-69 years (200,100 men and 195,300 women). At 30-69 years, the three most common fatal cancers were oropharyngeal, gastric and pulmonary in men and cervical, gastric and Pulmonary in women.

Reasons for poor compliance rates after diagnosis and induction therapy in patients with cancers eludes the physicians in
resource limited countries. A multitude of factors preclude adequate compliance with treatment compromising therapy and often leading to treatment failure . 

We are piloting a needs assessment project in rural India , to assess the barriers to seeking continued care for cancer therapy once the patients are discharged from the initial induction therapy . 

The rural-urban divide in the complicated geo-political terrian poses challenges of uniformity of reuslts of such predictions, but the most commonly effected patietns are the ones who have rural backgrounds and travel to the city for treatment . 

Measures to improve outreach and improve cancer outcome will thus follow . 

Interested partners may contact us at Project AGNI - http://dostakshat.wix.com/akshat-jain
or ajain12@nshs.edu . 

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