Cancer death rates declined globally between 1990 and 2023. India was an exception

New Delhi: In sharp contrast to declining cancer death rates around the world, when adjusted for age, India saw an alarming rise in the corresponding mortality rate, over 21 percentage points in the two decades leading up to 2023, according to a new analysis.

In China, the only other country comparable to India in terms of population, both cancer incidence rates and mortality rates went down during this period—in line with trends in the majority of ‘high- and upper-middle-income countries’. In this case, incidence rate and mortality rate, or death rate, are expressed in cases or deaths per lakh population per year.

Top oncologists and researchers ThePrint spoke to pointed to late diagnosis, limited access to oncological services and widespread exposure to known risks as possible fac