Prostate cancer rising in rural India, say experts

New Delhi, Sep 21:  Prostate cancer, the second most common cause of cancer and the sixth leading cause of cancer deaths among men worldwide, is rising in rural India, experts claim.

Cancer projection data shows that the number of cases will be doubled by 2020.

"Most of the metastatic prostate cancer cases are from rural areas. Therefore, it's a challenge to government and doctors to decrease the risk factors and take prostate cancer risk in the rural areas very seriously," P.N. Dogra, Professor and Head of Urology at AIIMS, said in a statement on Thursday.

The rural masses need to be made aware of the treatment, drugs and technologies to combat the disease.

"There is an urgent need to create awareness about prostate cancer threat amongst the rural population," said Anup Kumar, Head (Department of Urology and Renal Transplant) at Safdarjung Hospital.

Safdarjung Hospital sees more than one lakh patients every month from all over the country.

Of these, 20 per cent are prostate cancer patients, in which 40 per cent are clinically localised, 30 per cent are locally advanced and 30 per cent are metastatic prostate cancer cases, Kumar said. 

"Prostate cancer has become a major health problem globally during the last few decades. This disease is the second most common cause of cancer and the sixth leading cause of cancer death among men worldwide," Dogra said. 

According to the Population Based Cancer Registries in Delhi, the disease is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer among men in the national capital, accounting for about 6.78 per cent of all malignancies.