One in six women in Hyderabad faces the risk of developing cancer, according to the Telangana Cancer Burden Profile 2026, published by the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (ICMR-NCDIR).
The report painted a grim picture of a state ill-prepared for the cancer crisis.
The cumulative risk for men, while lower, is still deeply concerning: one in eight males in Hyderabad is likely to receive a cancer diagnosis before the age of 74. Together, these figures signal that cancer is no longer a distant possibility for a large share of Telangana’s population, but a statistical probability under current trends.
Telangana is projected to record 46,762 new cancer cases among adults in 2026, rising to 47,314 by 2030. Women bear the heavier load, with 25,510 new cases expected this year against 21,252 in men.
Director of the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) Dr Beerappa Nagari, who presided over a meeting convened to discuss the report’s findings, called the trajectory deeply worrying.
“Cancer cases are steadily rising in the state,” he said. “Early detection, public awareness, and accessible treatment facilities for all are crucial to address this situation.”
The report identified breast cancer as the single largest threat to women, accounting for 36.2 per cent of all female cases, followed by cervix uteri at 8.1 per cent and ovarian cancer at 6.6 per cent. Among men, oral cavity cancers dominate at 21.7 per cent, followed by lung cancer at 10.5 per cent and colorectal cancer at 7.9 per cent.
The age-standardised cancer burden, measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), stood at 1,979 per 100,000 population for both sexes combined. Women again fared worse, with a burden of 2,212 DALYs against 1,766 for men.
Perhaps the most alarming section of the report was regarding screening. Despite breast cancer accounting for more than a third of all female cancer cases, only 0.3 per cent of women aged 30 to 49 have ever undergone a breast examination. Cervical cancer screening fares only marginally better, with just 3.3 per cent of women having ever been tested. For oral cancer, the figures are 2.5 per cent for women and 2.6 per cent for men.
Cancer Registry Principal Investigator Dr Sadashivudu Gundeti said the data underscored an urgent need for structural change.
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“A healthy lifestyle, regular health check-ups, and screening programmes play a vital role in cancer prevention,” he said, adding that awareness programmes needed to be expanded significantly, “particularly in rural areas.”
The report attributed 58.8 per cent of all male cancer sites to tobacco use, a figure that laid bare the scale of a largely preventable crisis.
Among women, 29.7 per cent of cancer sites were tobacco-related, with cervix uteri accounting for 27 per cent of female tobacco-related cancers, in line with classifications by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Current tobacco use stood at 22.3 per cent among males and 5.6 per cent among females in the state.
The consequences of poor screening were visible in how patients arrived at hospitals. For lung cancer, 62 per cent of female patients and 55 per cent of male patients presented with distant metastasis, meaning the cancer had already spread to other organs.
Stomach cancer has a similar story, with distant metastasis at 33 per cent in women and 34 per cent in men. Even for breast cancer, where localised detection was clinically feasible, 40 per cent of cases were at the loco regional stage and 12 per cent had already reached distant metastasis by the time of diagnosis.
The report projected 628 new cancer cases in boys and 571 in girls between the ages of 0 and 19 in 2026. Lymphoid leukaemia is the leading site in both, accounting for roughly 32 per cent of cases. Brain cancer is a growing concern, representing 9.6 per cent of cases in boys and 10.7 per cent in girls.
Telangana’s primary tertiary cancer facility remains the MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre in Hyderabad. The state operates 10 hospital-based cancer registries and 59 palliative care centres.
Financial support is available through the Cheyutha Scheme, Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi, and Ayushman Bharat, though experts at the meeting noted that financial schemes alone cannot substitute for early detection.
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