With the aim of bringing all institutions offering cancer treatment-related facilities under a single umbrella, the government formed the National Cancer Control Council (NCCC) in the early 1990s. But even two decades after its formation, the council remains largely inactive.
Despite the fact that there are about two million cancer patients in Bangladesh, with an increase of 150,000 patients each year, there is only a single hospital - National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) - that provides complete cancer treatment options at the government level.
The government formed the high-level council (NCCC) uniting all stakeholders so that they could provide patients with proper treatment, which is very expensive.
According to meeting minutes and some notices by the council issued during 2003 and 2008, the NCCC is a regulatory organization which can undertake projects, order organizations to do things, conduct research, prepare plans of action and form task forces, among other things.
However, when asked about the kind of activity the council had been engaged in, Dr Qazi Mushtaq Hussain, director of NICRH, admitted that no activity had been there and no meeting had taken place in a while.
He was also completely unaware of the council's current situation.
“I do not know when the council was formed as I recently joined the hospital as director. I have asked my officials to collect documents about the NCCC,” said Mushtaq, who is also the current member secretary of the council.
Fighting cancer in Bangladesh
A 2018 report of GLOBOCAN, a global project on cancer research, notes that the number of people diagnosed with cancer has been rising every year.
Every year around 150,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in Bangladesh. In 2012, the number was 122,000. In 2018, 108,137 people died of cancer in the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also estimates that around 150,000 new patients are diagnosed with cancer in Bangladesh every year, of whom 20% are children. Among these children, 90% are diagnosed during the later stages.
At present there are over 1.5 million cancer patients in Bangladesh, according to WHO.
Doctors and health professionals say that every year about 200,000 new patients are being diagnosed with cancer. Only one-fourth of them receive treatment while others remain outside the healthcare system.
At the government level, only NICRH has the ability to provide complete treatment, whereas other public hospitals lack necessary equipment to handle cancer treatment cases.
At NICRH, around 1,200 patients are treated every day. On a daily basis, around 300 cancer patients receive chemotherapy and 350-400 patients take radiotherapy.
On average, a patient has to wait for a month for an operation, two-three weeks for chemotherapy, and three months for radiotherapy, said doctors.
For this reason, 75% of the patients die within a year of diagnosis. Those who survive fall in a financial crisis as the treatment is costlier in the private hospitals.
Recently the government has planned to establish cancer hospitals in eight divisions of the country.
Reviving NCCC is a must
Dr Habibullah Talukder Ruskin, associate professor and head of the Cancer Epidemiology at NICRH, said the council was formed in 1992-93 as a supreme organization of the country to prevent and cure cancer.
“However, due to corruption, internal politics, and conflict of personal interests, the council largely remained inactive since 2008. While the number of patients is increasing every day, the country is lacking improvement in treating cancer,” he added.
To bring about positive changes in cancer treatment, he suggested that screening and detection services be provided at upazila level. He also urged the government to consider reviving the activities of the NCCC immediately to improve the cancer treatment situation.
When asked, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said maybe the council did not sit formally, but many activities, including establishment of cancer hospitals in eight divisions, are ongoing.
“We have done all the work after consulting related people of the sector. We will strengthen NCCC even more in future,” he said.