India, June 19 -- Denied, Delayed, Dead

By Dr. B.S. Ajaikumar

India's cancer crisis is not defined by a lack of science. The drugs, treatments and expertise exist. And yet, patients are still dying - because the system refuses to let them access it. This is not a story about affordability alone. It is a story about denial.

Consider a 57-year-old woman diagnosed with gallbladder cancer. Her tumour mutation required a targeted therapy drug, Selumetinib, where conventional treatments had failed. But the drug was never administered because the government health insurance scheme did not cover it. She died waiting - not for science to catch up, but for policy to allow it.

Then there was a 50-year-old woman with lung cancer. Her doctors reco...