1st Indian Cancer Congress ended on a high and encouraging note

The four day Ist Indian Cancer Congress 2013 ended on a high and encouraging note in New Delhi. The highlight of the day was a session by Ms. Shabnam Singh, Yuvraj Singh's mother on family's struggle during cancer.

Some of the issues highlighted were:

Amending the NDPS Act, the need of the hour

The NDPS Act Bill (Amendment) is waiting for the clearance from the Parliament of India. The Indian Cancer Congress and the Indian Association of Palliative Care feel strongly that we should not miss this opportunity to make a difference to millions of patients, across the country and urges all the political parties and our members in parliament to help pass the bill.

The unresolved issue of poor access to medications to treat cancer pain.

India is one of the largest producers of morphine in the world. But the big irony is that we export the medicine to other parts of the world, especially to the so-called the developed countries for the benefit of patients there, but availability to our own people is very much restricted.

As per the national policy on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic substances released by the Finance Minister on 6^th February 2012

As per this policy medical use of morphine has been extremely low, with the result that thousands of patients in India suffer from avoidable pain. The policy also states that India uses one-thousandth of the morphine consumed in the world. The policy also highlights the International Narcotics Control Board's recommendation to improve availability of opioid analgesics for medical purposes and the need for India to address impediments such as simplification of NDPS rules.

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