Partnering with District Hospitals in India for Fight Against Cancer

Cancer is a difficult disease to treat particularly in low socioeconomic strata. There are three major challenges: that of early detection, of affordability and easy accessibility to specialised health care. The complexity of health care delivery, lack of structured grassroots level training program for early cancer detection, the shortage of well-equipped hospitals compounds the challenge of detecting as well as treating cancer in village based India. We have tried to reach out to rural population, through district level anti-cancer programs. These included holding (1) free detection camps to find cancers early, (2) training of doctors at district level in early detection (3) wherever feasible, offer radical surgery at the district hospitals itself and (4) train doctors, nurses on relevant palliative care issues including home care of dying cancer patients. We believe that our experience of carrying out more than 200 free cancer detection camps and performing radical surgeries in an outreach program in several districts of central India and surrounding States have the practical potential of a national model for low cost cancer treatment.