Background: Head and neck cancers (HNC) constitute about one-third of all cancers in India, in contrast to 4-5% in the developed world. A hospital based five year’s retrospective study was conducted to report the present burden of HNC in the state of Odisha, which has about one twenty-eighth population of India at present.

Material and Methods: All the patients suffering from HNC who were treated by radiation therapy during 2010-14 at a Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Odisha were analyzed year-wise for age, sex, site of disease and their native area.

Results: Basing on the census-2011 data, the number of registered HNC patients per annum in radiotherapy per million of population from low, medium and high literacy areas were calculated and found as 5.34, 6.36 and 29.51 respectively. Out of the total HNC patients treated, more than 66.49% were from oral cancer at the median age of 52 years.

Discussion: Odisha has 83.3% rural population with literacy below 70%. Due to large number of tobacco users, lack of awareness, higher percentage of illiteracy and unavailability of basic cancer care facilities at their reach, people mainly depend on various unscientific methods for their health care. Conclusion: Strengthening of existing RCC of the state, development of oncology wings in all medical college hospitals by providing basic radiotherapy facilities, emphasising more on district cancer control programs, decentralising of NGO schemes and facilitating with more cancer screening and awareness programs may help better registration, prevention and treatment of cancer in Odisha.

Keywords: Head & Neck cancer, radiotherapy, Odisha.

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Pradeep Kumar Hota

Department of Medical Physics,

Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre, Cuttack-753007, India