Despite Goa’s suc cess in reducing the preva lence of oral cancer to be low 10 per cent — far lower than the national average of 28.6 per cent — doctors are warning of a disturbing new trend: the disease is in creasingly being diagnosed in people in their 30s due to the early use of smokeless tobacco products such as gutkha and pan masala. President of the National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE-India) and senior oncologist Dr Shekhar Salkar said India continues to bear nearly one-third of the global oral cancer burden, with around 1.35 lakh new cases and 75,000 deaths reported every year. “Nationally, oral cavity cancer ranks as the leading cancer, though sustained advocacy and enforcement — such as the Goa Pro hibition of Smoking and Spitting Act, 1997 — have successfully lowered prev alence rates in Goa to un der 10 per cent, compared to the national average of 28.6 per cent,” Dr Salkar said.
However, he cautioned that the average age of diag nosis has dropped into the 30s as increasing numbers of young people begin con suming smokeless tobacco products at an early age. “To address these chal lenges, we propose de ploying AI-based screening tools to standardise diag nosis and eliminate human variability. Given its exten sive public health network (PHCs, CHCs, and frontline Anganwadi workers) and high smartphone penetra tion, Goa is uniquely posi tioned to pilot this digital intervention,” he said. “Oral cancer has a sur vival rate of 80 to 90 per cent when detected in Stages I and II, which is why early diagnosis and regular screening are criti cal.
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However, technological interventions alone will not solve the problem un less tobacco consumption is tackled at its source,” Dr Salkar said. “The multi-sectoral eco nomic burden of tobacco — estimated at Rs 1.77 lakh crore in healthcare expenditure and lost pro ductivity — far outweighs the Rs 70,000-80,000 crore generated in tax revenue. We advocate a phased transition by 2047 to crop-substitution models for farmers, such as sugar cane for ethanol, along with incentives for corporate diversification to gradual ly dismantle the tobacco supply chain,” he said.
