Rollout of cancer registry delayed due to data entry hiccups in Telangana | Hyderabad News

Hyderabad: The rollout of a cancer registry in Telangana is facing delays, as officials are taking time to verify, filter and consolidate data received from hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the state. The registry is now expected to be completed and uploaded before April 2027 – a year after the state declared cancer a notifiable disease.A notifiable disease is any medical condition that is required by law to be reported to govt authorities. With the govt declaring cancer notifiable, authorities launched a dedicated portal on April 6 this year to enable govt and private hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres to report cancer cases to the health department.However, sources told TOI that implementation has been sluggish, with several nursing homes and private facilities across the state yet to submit their data on the portal.“Cases are being registered on the portal, but the data has to be filtered and verified before the cancer trends are finalised. Some facilities also need training on the data entry process, which is another reason for the delay. District medical and health officers have been asked to train the staff but it will still take some months,” said a senior doctor from the MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre, Lakdikapul.The official said that it would take at least another four months before meaningful cancer trends start emerging, and about 10 to 11 months before the health department gets a clearer picture of the cancer burden across Telangana.The cancer registry will help identify regions across the state with a higher disease burden and types of cancers requiring greater attention.“The cases reported from April onwards should ideally have been available for preliminary analysis by now. A complete registry may take longer because the data has to be verified and duplicates removed, but the department should at least release an interim report and explain the reasons for the delay. Health department staff should have been imparted training on data entry much earlier,” said a govt oncologist and public health expert.Officials are also checking for duplicate entries and linking the records of patients who receive treatment at different hospitals.“If a patient from Karimnagar comes to Hyderabad for treatment, the patient’s earlier records and history should be available. The system must ensure that the same patient is not counted more than once. This is important to ensure that cancer figures are accurate and that patients’ treatment history is tracked across hospitals without duplication,” said a health official.The data will be checked every month after the registry becomes fully operational. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is also expected to be involved in the process.According to health department estimates, the annual number of new cancer cases is around 55,000 to 60,000 annually.The cancer portal data shows an incidence rate of 125 cases for a population of one lakh, compared with 110 per lakh nationwide and 253 per lakh globally. Incidence rate is the number of new cancer cases reported in a specific population during a given period, usually expressed as cases per one lakh people per year.The portal also shows that as many as 10.33 lakh people (3.54 lakh men and 6.79 lakh) women have received treatment. Thirty-one daycare cancer centres are already operational across districts, each with 10 chemotherapy and 10 palliative-care beds. More than 1,500 patients have received chemotherapy at these centres.Hanumakonda recorded the highest incidence at 79 cases per lakh population annually, followed by Hyderabad at 72, according to the Telangana Cancer Burden Profile 2026 released earlier this year.It also showed that screening remains low. Less than 4% of women aged 30-49 had undergone cancer screening, while only 0.3% had undergone a breast examination.