Telangana makes cancer a notifiable disease, mandates one-month reporting timeline

The Telangana government has issued orders making cancer a notifiable disease, mandating compulsory registration and reporting of all diagnosed cases across the State as part of a move to strengthen surveillance and public health response. The order was issued by Health Secretary Christina Z. Chongthu on Monday.

The order said that at present only institution-level cancer registries exist in Telangana, including Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and the Mehdi Nawaz Jung Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Centre (MNJIO RCC) in Hyderabad. The absence of a uniform, State-wide system was cited as a gap in public health planning.

To address this, the government has introduced a mandatory reporting mechanism requiring all diagnosed cancer cases, from both government and private hospitals, to be reported. The objective is to establish a robust surveillance system capable of estimating incidence, prevalence and mortality, supporting early detection and screening, aiding treatment and rehabilitation services, and facilitating evidence-based policy-making, monitoring and research. A uniform cancer registry will function as a centralised platform for the State, the order said.

It further added that all cases of cancer, including in situ and invasive cancers diagnosed or registered at any healthcare facility, laboratory or through registrars of births and deaths, must be reported within one month of diagnosis or registration in a prescribed format.

To operationalise the reporting system, District Medical and Health Officers (DMHOs) have been tasked with ensuring that all institutions under their jurisdiction report cancer cases mandatorily. Each facility must maintain a designated cancer register to record both existing and new cases. The Director of Public Health (DPH) will monitor the timeliness and quality of data submission.

The MNJ Institute of Oncology will function as the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for cancer care in Telangana and will be responsible for scrutiny and validation of submitted data to ensure accuracy. It will also coordinate with reporting institutions to obtain additional details where necessary. The institute will further ensure regular submission of data to the National Cancer Registry maintained by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).