High incidence of cancers of thyroid gland, breast and lungs in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Cancers of the tongue, stomach, lung, breast and thyroid glands appears to have the highest incidence in Kerala.

Nearly 40 per cent of the cancer patients registered at the Regional Cancer Centre here between January 1, 2012 and March 31, 2015 had cancers of those sites. Highest number of deaths at the centre was of patients with stomach, lung and breast cancers.

As many as 43630 patients had registered at the centre during the period. Of them, 6260 had breast cancer, 4088 suffered from cancer of thyroid gland and 3756 had lung cancer. Patients with tongue and stomach cancer numbered 1738 and 1589 respectively.

About 50 per cent of the cancer patients were in the 50-69 age group.  In the case of tobacco related cancer patients, this was more than 60 per cent.

The number of tobacco related cancer patients reporting at the centre has not shown any reduction in recent years. In fact, there was a slight increase in 2014.