PANAJI
The stark reality of cancer in Goa: 404 deaths in 2024 reported at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) alone, roughly more than one per day.
Data furnished to the Goa legislative assembly on cancer cases in the GMC shows a steadily rising trend of deaths annually. While in Covid-hit 2020, GMC reported 236 cancer-related deaths, it rose to 256 in 2021 and the fatalities steeply rose to 342 the next year.
In 2023, the number of deaths due to cancer at GMC dropped slightly to 302 but again rose sharply last year to 404, roughly more than one death per day.
The cancer-related data from GMCH furnished by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane over the last five years since 2020 has also shown a rising trend of cancers of the genito-urinary system, including kidneys, prostate, bladder, testicular, vaginal, cervical, stomach and intestinal cancers.
The number of lung, skin, head and neck cancer patients has also risen in percentage terms in these five years, according to official data furnished in the Goa legislative assembly by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane during the recent budget session.
In Covid-hit 2020, 949 patients were detected for cancer of which nearly a tenth, 95, of them had cancer of the genitourinary system. Last year, GMC reported 1,409 cancer cases and the share of patients with cancer of the genito-urinary system rose to nearly 15.5 per cent (219).
As for lung cancer, while only 4.5 per cent (43) of the 949 cancer patients had it in Covid-hit 2020, it rose by nearly two percentage points to 6.5 per cent (91) of the total 1,409 patients in 2024.
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Breast cancer incidence highest
PANAJI: Breast cancer incidence was the highest as compared to other cancers between 2020 and 2024. Of the 5,816 cancer patients recorded at the GMC during this five-year period, 1,483 (25.50 per cent) were cases of breast cancer. The data however shows that the incidence of blood cancer dropped by 7.8 percent over the five-year period.
