Indians Lose Millions of Productive Years to Cancer

Bangalore: Cancer has affected many lives in India and around the world, some are benign and others fatal but when detected it demands attention and time. The time cancer consumes has been estimated to be prominently the individual’s most productive years of his or her life. An elaborate study on the worldwide impact of cancer found out that, the number of healthy years lost by cancer patients just in 2008 was 1.87 crore years in India.

Around the world about 170 million healthy years of individuals were consumed by cancer. Out of the 170 million years lost 25 percent was recorded in China and India shares 11 percent of this load. The two countries recorded 67 percent of the crisis caused by cancer in Asia.

The report calculated the productive years lost to cancer by estimating the disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), which are the average number of years a person lives with the disability and the number of years lost due to premature demise as published in the British Journal, ‘The Lancet’.

DALYs gives more attention to the number of death that occurs at an early age, which people spend on building careers, raising a family, and supporting members of family. Here are some remarkable facts found by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.