RESUMO
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) started a National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) in the year 1982 with the main objective of generating reliable data on the magnitude and pattern of cancer in India. There are about 20 Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCR) which are currently functioning under the network of NCRP. The present paper aims to provide the time trends in the incidence of breast and cervix cancer among females of India. The incidence data collected by Bangalore, Barshi, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai over the period 1990 to 2003 formed the sources of data. In the year 1990, cervix was the leading site of cancer followed by breast cancer in the registries of Bangalore (23.0% vs 15.9%), Bhopal (23.2% vs 21.4%), Chennai (28.9% vs 17.7%) and Delhi (21.6% vs 20.3%), while in Mumbai breast was the leading site of cancer (24.1% vs 16.0%). By the years 2000-3, the scenario had changed and breast had overtaken as the leading site of cancer in all the registries except in Barshi (16.9% vs 36.8%). The time trend analysis for these sites suggested a significant decreasing trend in the case of cervix in Bangalore and Delhi registries, while the registries of Bhopal, Chennai and Mumbai did not show any significant changes. However, in the case of breast cancer, a significant increasing trend was observed in Bhopal, Chennai and Delhi registries with Bangalore and Mumbai registries demonstrating no such significant changes. Histopathologic confirmation for both malignancies was found to be more than 80% in these registries. It is concluded that in India the cervix cancer rates are decreasing while breast cancer is on the increase.