Global health experts, including the Deputy WHO Representative to India, at the 2^nd Cancer E-summit, lauded the country’s efforts to prevent cancer and emphasised the need to break the silos of cancer care and address it with a ‘continuum of care’ approach. The summit, organised by the Integrated Health and Wellbeing (IHW) Council, is powered by Manipal Hospitals, Dwarka, New Delhi.

“We are glad to have India as a participating country in the WHO Global Initiative on Childhood Cancer. WHO advocates continuum of care for cancer and has adopted a global strategy to accelerate cervical cancer elimination that sets a 90-70-90 targets by 2030: 90 per cent of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15; 70 per cent of women screened by the age of 35, and again by the age of 45; and 90 per cent of women identified with cervical disease receive treatment,” says Payden, Deputy WHO Representative to India.

"There are more than 230 cancer centres, research institutes, patient groups and charitable institutions that are currently members of the national cancer grid. But we need to ensure quality cancer care is available in the hinterlands of our country as social determinants of health are important," says Dr CS Pramesh, Director, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai and the convener of the National Cancer Grid.

“With timely intervention, even advanced-stage cancers can be clinically managed in a better way,” Raman Bhaskar, Hospital Director, HCMCT Manipal Hospitals, New Delhi.

Dr Anil D’Cruz, President, The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), says, “In the first, we must strengthen the primary care that will take care of all non-communicable diseases, including cancer while in the second, we must strengthen our centres of excellence.”