New Delhi, March 12 -- India recently announced a budgetary allocation of Rs.3,200 crore to set up 200 Day Care Cancer Centres in all district hospitals over the next three years. This is welcome. It signals that cancer has reached the policy table. India has a high mortality rate (around 64%, age-standardized) and the prevalence of the disease has risen by more than 50% in three decades. With an estimated 1.5-2 million cancer patients in India (some reports claim this may be as high as 6 million), it is a significant public health challenge now.

effective way of enhancing survival among patients is early detection. For example, the estimated survival rate for breast cancer patients is 99% if detected early, compared to 31% for late dete...