Feasibility of undertaking cancer incidence studies in rural areas of India.

In the rural areas of developing countries, modern medical facilities are well below optimum levels and death registration is not mandatory. In India, as a result of such a situation, very few studies have been undertaken on the incidence of cancer in the rural population, though 80% of the people live in villages. The paper presents cancer incidence rates observed in a rural area of India by means of a method involving the use of paramedical personnel for initial screening, to minimize the cost. A statistical evaluation of the results shows that the method can be used for registering common sites of cancer in an area where conventional cancer registration methods are not applicable.