Lok Sabha Question No. 2124 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-12
Subject: National Cancer Grid
Ministry: ATOMIC ENERGY
Asked by: Shri Rajesh Verma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF ATOMIC ENERGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 2124

ANSWERED ON 12/03/2025

## NATIONAL CANCER GRID

## 2124.  SHRI RAJESH VERMA

Will the PRIME MINISTER be pleased to state:-

- (a) the role of the National Cancer Grid (NCG) in providing cancer care across India, including the number of cancer centres added to the network during the last two years and the proportion of cancer patients treated under the Grid;
- (b) the key initiatives undertaken by NCG to improve cancer diagnosis, treatment protocols and research in India;
- (c) the objectives and progress of the SEACan Grid established in collaboration with  the  WHO  South-East  Asia  Regional  Office  and  the  manner  in  which India is contributing to improving cancer control in the region; and
- (d) the future plans of the Government to further expand the NCG's reach within India  and  enhance  collaborations  under  SEACan  Grid  to  strengthen  cancer care and control efforts across the South-East Asia region?

## ANSWER

## THE  MINISTER  OF  STATE  FOR  PERSONNEL,  PUBLIC  GRIEVANCES  AND PENSIONS AND IN THE PMO (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) NCG  has  worked  towards  uniform  standards  of  cancer  care,  developing trained  workforce  in  oncology  and  supporting  high-quality  multi-centric cancer research to develop cost-effective solutions for prevention and treatment of cancer.

There are 362-member organizations in the NCG. In last two years a total of 70 cancer centres have been added to the NCG. Between these centres, a total of 8,00,000 new cancer cases are treated annually. Thus, any initiative of the NCG has potential of massive and far-reaching impact.

- (b) The following key initiatives are undertaken by NCG for striving delivery of uniform  cancer  care  to  all  irrespective  their  geographical  location  or  socioeconomic status.
- i. Resource stratified guidelines for management of cancers based on the cost-effectiveness and infrastructure availability.
- ii. The  guidelines  are  linked  with  AB-PMJAY  to  ensure  quality  of  care delivery to the AB-PMJAY beneficiaries.
- iii. Capacity building to conduct health technology assessment to ensure that oncology packages and treatments promote value-based care.
- iv. Group negotiation for all the high-value anticancer drugs which resulted in  a  median  of  82%  price  reduction  leading  to  improvement  in  access and affordability
- v. Standardization of diagnosis by NCG-surgical pathology quality assurance  program  which  helps  ensuring  correct  diagnosis  at  all  the participating centres.
- vi. Quality  improvement  programs  which  train  the  centre  in  improving quality of all the cancer care pathways.
- vii. Training of health-care professionals including nurses, pathologists and technicians from across the country to deliver high quality cancer care.
- viii. Virtual tumour boards to provide inputs on diagnosis and treatment from a  multidisciplinary  team  of  cancer  experts  for  all  the  complex  cancer cases at any of the cancer centers at any location.
- ix. Development  of  interoperable  oncology  specific  electronic  medical record solution
- x. Establishment  of  Koita  Centre  of  digital  oncology  to  leverage  digital technologies to improve cancer care from prevention to treatment. This is in complete alignment with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
- xi. Integrated data collection & aggregation - a "National Cancer Database to guide all the cancer policies and national cancer control plan. Initial databases established for five common cancers.
- xii. Partnering  with  digital  tech  companies  to  deliver  cancer  care  near  to patients' home
- xiii. Initiation of national tumor tissue biobank across NCG to understand the cancer  causation,  identification  and  development  of  new  anticancer treatment and preventive technologies.
- xiv. Optimization of treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia to increase cure rates - the largest trial done till date anywhere in the world.
- xv. Repurposing of drugs (aspirin, metformin and curcumin) to provide costeffective treatment options for common cancers
- xvi. Training the early career oncologists in conducting high-quality cancer research. Till date more than 400 oncologists have been trained
- xvii. Setting  a  priority  agenda  for  cancer  research  and  collaborating  with ICMR (with joint matched funding) to fund the country-relevant research questions. These include the following:
1. Reduce burden of patients presenting with advanced disease
2. Improve  access,  affordability  and  outcomes  in  cancer  care  via solution-oriented research
3. Country-level  health  economic  assessment  of  cancer  interventions and technologies
4. Quality improvement and implementation research
5. Leverage technology to improve cancer control supported by robust scientific evidence
6. Sharing  the  best  practices  with  other  low-middle  income  countries through NCG-Vishwam, ASEAN and BIMSTEC and establishment of SEACan Grid
- (c) Many  of  the  South-East  Asian  (SEA)  countries  face  similar  challenges  in cancer  control due  to lack of standards  for prevention, diagnosis,  and treatment  and  inadequate  trained  human  resources.  Given  that  NCG  has addressed many of these through successful initiatives which can be replicated in  these  countries,  NCG  with  WHO  South-East  Asia  Regional  Office  has established  SEACan  Grid.   The  aim  is  to  initiate  virtual  tumour  boards, sharing of treatment guidelines, imparting training through blended learning, and in-person fellowships.
- (d) The NCG plans to co-develop the National Cancer Control program using its strengths  and  information  gained  from  all  the  initiatives.  There  is  strong emphasis on using digital technology to address all aspects of cancer care and training.  In  subsequent  years,  NCG plan to expand all its initiatives through SEACan  Grid  to  ensure  the  cancer  control  in  entire  South  East  Asia  is achieved optimally.

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