Jammu district shares major load of cancer patients in province with 38.94% cases

Jammu, Nov 16: Jammu district has reported the highest number of cancer patients i.e., 3,671, which formed 38.94 percent of the total cases in the province in the 2020-24 data set of the State Cancer Institute (SCI) at the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu.

SCI of GMC Jammu has registered 9,427 cases across Jammu division, as per its comprehensive data collected over the five-year period. Male patients (5351) represent 56.76 percent of the total registered cases while the female patients (4076) constitute 42.23 percent.

The male to female ratio for registered cancer patients stands at 1.31:1, indicating a higher prevalence among males in the recorded dataset.

Cumulatively, lung cancer has topped the overall list of five major cancers reported from the province with a total of 1338 cases, constituting 30 percent of the aggregate figure (of both males and females).

This is also the most prevalent cancer among males i.e., 32 percent.

In case of females, breast cancer with 30 percent tops the list of five major cancers.

On the whole, the matter of concern was that the majority of the patients reported to the hospital only after the disease had advanced to Stage III or Stage IV.

According to the latest Hospital-Based Cancer Registry data, cumulatively in case of higher prevalence, the lung cancer was followed by head and neck cancers (1,005), breast (704), hepatobiliary (681), genito-urinary (654), hematological cancers (653), esophageal (519), oral cancers (519), and cervical cancer (494).

Other major cancers included intestinal (456), cancers of unknown primary or CUPs (410), ovarian (354), lymphoma (305), stomach (279), brain (263), prostate (233) and bone and soft-tissue cancers (210), in addition to 186 other women’s cancers, 111 skin cancers, and 53 classified as other types, the data shows.

In case of total cases, Jammu district is followed by Udhampur (943), Kathua (855), Doda (694), Rajouri (675), Samba (580), Reasi (532), Poonch (424), Kishtwar (292), and Ramban (222). Another 539 patients were from outside the Jammu division.

Age-wise data shows 4,234 cases in the 60–80 year age group — the highest among all categories — while 3,669 cases were reported in the 40–60 year age group. A total of 964 patients were aged 20–40, 456 were above 80, and 102 were children and adolescents aged 0–20.

Staging data shows an alarming trend, with 4,029 patients diagnosed in Stage IV and 2,744 in Stage III, indicating that a majority of patients reached the hospital only after the disease had progressed to advanced stages. Another 1,958 cases were detected in Stage II, and 696 in Stage I.