Cancer Trends in West Bengal Over 25 Years: A Comprehensive Single-Centre Study

The last 25 years have seen considerable changes in cancer epidemiology in India. Numerous studies have shown increases in certain cancers, such as lifestyle and tobacco-related cancers, with decreases in other cancers, such as cervical cancer. Despite the development of the National Cancer Registry Program in 1964, cancer is not a notifiable disease in India, and there remains no comprehensive cancer registry with data relying on regional and hospital-based registries. This retrospective study aimed to elucidate the trends in cancer epidemiology in the West Bengal region over a period of 25 years (1996-2020). Our analysis includes retrospective data from the hospital electronic records of a tertiary cancer institution in Kolkata which serves patients from Kolkata as well as Eastern, North-Eastern India and Bangladesh. We collected data from 189,485 patients (of which 135,578 had malignant disease) who were diagnosed during this time. Data was visualised using Microsoft Excel and analysed using linear trend analyses and the Mann-Kendall test. We saw significant increases in breast cancers amongst females and oral cavity cancers amongst males, consistent with other studies across various regions of India. In contrast, we identified significant decreases in the frequency of cervical cancers amongst females and cancers of the ear, nose and throat regions amongst males. We report that the cancer epidemiology in West Bengal is generally following that of the rest of India. Our study has revealed important trends in cancer frequency in West Bengal and has illustrated important areas for targeting preventative and/or screening interventions.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13193-025-02252-5.