Over 1,300 breast cancer and 695 prostate cancer cases were reported in Jammu and Kashmir over the past four years, said the state government today, asserting that the process for setting up a cancer institute and nuclear medicine department here has been initiated.
 

"Prostate cancer is common in men above the age of 70 years in the state but not as common as breast cancer in females," Health minister Bali Bhagat said in a written reply to a question by National Conference MLA Mubarak Gul in the assembly here. Justifying his statement with figures, he said, while 1,318 cases of breast cancer were reported from 2014 to 2017, 695 cases of prostate cancer were reported during the same period.

Bhagat said 303 breast cancer cases were reported in 2014, 330 in 2015, 296 in 2016 and 389 in 2017. Similarly, 242 prostate cancer cases came to light in 2014, 273 in 2015, 75 in 2016 and 105 last year, the minister said. He said the cancer patients are referred to institutions outside the state for radiation treatment, while the regional cancer centre at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar has been given the status of state cancer institute.

In Jammu, the process of establishing a cancer institute and nuclear medicine department in the government medical college here has also been initiated, Bhagat said. "The incidents of histopathologically confirmed malignancy have increased over the years," the minister said.

He said the oncology department in SKIMS and the medical colleges in collaboration with other departments have been conducting outreach and public awareness programmes related to prevention, early detection, and early referral of such patients at various districts in the state.