Chandigarh, July 26

As cancer cases in Punjab are on the rise, Punjab Congress MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday in Lok Sabha raised a question regarding free of cost treatment to patients.

Warring said: "The government claims that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. If it was so, why cannot the government provide cancer treatment free of cost to patients rather that lowering the cost of medicines. When someone has cancer in his family, his entire family dies along with him, so it is very important that the government provide treatment free of cost rather than lowering the cost of medicines."

Health Minister JP Nadda -- responding to a query by Congress member Warring, said the government has made all efforts to ensure that affordable and accessible treatment was available to the patients.

"The number of cancer cases is going up, it is increasing by almost 2.5 per cent every year," adding that," In men, cases of oral and lung cancer are on the up while more women are getting breast cancer".

More than 15.5 lakh cancer cases are being registered every year, said Nadda.

"There is a list of 131 essential cancer medicines, which are in Schedule 1, (that) are monitored and (their) pricing is decided by the government. These are the commonly used medicines," Nadda said.

He said patients cumulatively saved around Rs 294 crore due to this price control.

"There are 28 combinations, which are not in this list but the NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) and the government have controlled their pricing as well," he said.

"We have tried to make cancer drugs affordable," he added.

In Punjab, maximum cancer patients are women with the breast and cervix uteri being the most common, while in men the most prevalent is esophagus (food pipe) cancer that is due to alcohol consumption and fat.

As per the data with the Indian Council of Medical Research (National Centre for Diseases informatics and Research, Bengaluru), the projected incidents of cancer for 2025 in Punjab in males are 19,991 and 23,205 females totaling to 43,196 cases.

In 2020, a total of 38,636 cases are reported -- 18,043 cases in males and 20,593 cases in females, the sources said.

In 2019, the number was 37,744 cases, 36,888 cases in 2018, a total of 39,521 cases in 2021, and 40,435 in 2022.