India can do more for breast and cervical cancer control

In India breast and cervical cancers are the commonest cancers and have high annual age-adjusted rates in all the registries. In order to have significant improvement in cancer control in India there needs to be a disproportionate focus on women's breast and cervical cancer. In most women cancer has spread at the time of presentation. Simple, inexpensive and cost-effective screening methods are available for both the cancers and compliance to investigation and treatment has been reported to be more than 70%, and more than 80%, respectively for those diagnosed. Screening on a large scale though cost-effective will be challenging economically as well as programmatically. However, there is a need to strategize and select appropriate high-risk groups, have standardized guidelines for screening and treatment, and concentrate on what is do-able.