Tobacco is the single most important cause of avoidable morbidity and early mortality in many countries including India. Majority of cancer cases are induced by tobacco. There are studies carried out in India to investigate the cancer patters with respect to tobacco use. Chewing tobacco has a major risk for oral cancer; bidi smoking, for cancers of the pharynx and larynx and cigarette smoking, for lung cancer.
The highest incidence rate of lung cancer in males in India is reported from Calcutta. The 1993 Cancer registry of the Tata Memorial Hospital (TMC) in Mumbai provided evidence of clear correlation between smoking and cancer. Tobacco-related cancer (TRC) cases constitute 48.2% in men and 20.1% in women of the total cancers seen in India per year.
The authors opined that in-depth studies are necessary with larger data sets to evaluate the role of confounding and competing risk factors such as environmental pollution, smoking habits, domestic use of fossil fuels, consumption of alcohol, etc. Since cancer is a known old age disease, increase in life expectancy over the years, the number of cancer incidences also will increase.
The government should bring in stringent measures through legislation or otherwise, to control Tobacco use, particularly by children (gutka), the female population, and provide measures to control passive smoking by the non-smoking population.
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