India needs a unified, patient-centric national cancer care mission to strengthen early detection, expand access to personalised treatment and ensure equitable cancer outcomes nationwide.
India is at a critical juncture in its fight against cancer with an opportunity to shift decisively from late-stage intervention to a proactive, prevention-led and precision-driven care model.
“The country has the scale, scientific capability and emerging digital health ecosystem needed to lead a new era in cancer care, one rooted in early detection, personalised treatment and equitable access. However, achieving this will require a nationally coordinated, patient-centric approach that ensures innovation reaches every patient, regardless of geography or income,” said Praveen Rao Akkinepally, Managing Director & Country President, AstraZeneca Pharma India Ltd.
“India can demonstrate that cutting-edge technology and life-saving innovative medicines can benefit a billion people if innovation is aligned with affordability and supported by strong last-mile delivery,” he said, pointing to the growing role of public–private collaboration, empowered clinicians and data-driven healthcare systems.
In recent years, the Union government has increasingly treated cancer as a system-level priority rather than an isolated health issue, integrating prevention, screening, treatment and survivorship into broader health and development strategies. India’s participation in global initiatives such as the Quad Cancer Moonshot, along with efforts to decentralise care through day-care cancer centres and expand financial protection for patients, reflects this shift.
Policies such as the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), alongside state health insurance schemes, now cover a wide range of cancer procedures and chemotherapy packages at free or subsidised rates, reaching the poorest 40% of the population. Additional financial relief is available through the Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi for patients below the poverty line.
Despite this progress, Akkinepally cautioned that disparities in screening, diagnostic capacity and treatment infrastructure continue to limit access to modern cancer care. While some states have advanced cancer centres and robust patient registries, others still face gaps in basic diagnostics, affecting the uniform implementation of national programmes such as NPCDCS and PMJAY.
He noted that advances in cancer science increasingly underscore the importance of early detection and biomarker- or genomics-driven personalised treatment in improving patient outcomes. However, uneven access to molecular diagnostics and fragmented care pathways prevent many patients from benefiting from these innovations.
Against this backdrop, Akkinepally called for the creation of a dedicated National Cancer Care Mission, with a defined budget and a clear mandate to consolidate existing schemes into a single, goal-oriented framework.
Such a mission, he argued, should focus on coordinated funding across central and state programmes, with PMJAY serving as the foundational layer. It should also enable top-up coverage where required, establish a minimum diagnostic infrastructure blueprint for every state—including molecular diagnostic centres linked to district cancer centres—and expand access to prevention, screening and treatment services nationwide.
Strengthening cancer registries, integrating real-world evidence and deploying artificial intelligence to deliver guideline-based care more efficiently should form the fourth pillar of this architecture, he added.
With the forthcoming Union Budget, India has a timely opportunity to translate intent into policy and send a strong signal of its commitment to tackling cancer as a unified national priority. “A data-guided, partnership-driven approach to equitable cancer care is no longer optional—it is a necessary public health investment,” Akkinepally said.
He added that global experience shows early investment in prevention and screening not only saves lives but also reduces long-term healthcare costs. Strategic collaboration between the Centre and states, public and private stakeholders, clinicians and researchers can help convert existing commitments into measurable outcomes on the ground.
As India advances towards the goals outlined under the ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’ vision, he emphasised that addressing cancer and other non-communicable diseases through coordinated national action will be essential to sustaining broader health and economic progress.
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