Cancer Spike in Northeast Exposes India's Critical Data Gap: Parliamentary Panel Warns

• A parliamentary panel flagged a worrying rise in cancer cases in India’s Northeast, highlighting a critical lack of basic data.
• India lacks a clear picture of cancer burden, hindering targeted prevention, treatment, and early detection strategies.
• The panel recommended Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) and CSIR-IGIB collaborate to study genetic predisposition in Northeast ethnic groups.
• Only 19% of India is covered by cancer registries; there's no nationwide, population-based cancer registry.
• The panel urged making cancer a notifiable disease and establishing a unified national cancer database for accurate data.

Why It Matters: India urgently needs a comprehensive national cancer database and registry to combat rising cases effectively.