Background: Bihar faces various healthcare challenges and has limited access to specialised cancer care and systematic cancer surveillance. The establishment of the Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (HBCH&RC), Muzaffarpur, a unit of Tata Memorial Hospital offers state-of-art cancer care services, and a valuable platform to describe the cancer patterns through hospital-based registry data.
Methods: This study analyses data from the Hospital-Based Cancer Registry (HBCR) at HBCH&RC, Muzaffarpur, covering the years 2021–2022. Cancer pattern was assessed with respect to sociodemographic characteristics, cancer site distribution, stage at presentation and treatment patterns. Factors associated with treatment uptake were examined using binary logistic regression. Data were coded using the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology and analysed using standard registry guidelines.
Results: Among the 5,285 registered cases, 2,904 cases had complete records, while information on disease behaviour and treatment was unavailable for 2,381 cases (45%) due to suboptimal maintenance of electronic medical records during the initial years of hospital functioning. Of the remaining 2,904 cases, 2,878 (99.1%) were malignant. Mouth (418, 28%), tongue (119, 8.2%), prostate (69, 4.7%), stomach (62, 4.2%) and lung cancer (62, 4.2%) dominated among males; while breast (436, 30.7%), cervix (192, 13.5%), gall bladder (163, 11%), ovary (82, 5.8%) and lung cancers (70, 4.9%) were frequent among females. Only half of the registered cancer patients undertook definitive treatment at the study centre. Logistic regression revealed lower treatment uptake among older patients (60–69 years: odds ratio (OR) = 0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.48–0.81; p < 0.001; ≥70 years: OR = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.34–0.60; p < 0.001). Higher education levels were positively associated with treatment uptake (primary education: OR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.07–1.72; p = 0.011; secondary education or above: OR = 1.32; 95% CI: 1.08–1.62; p = 0.006) than illiterates. Patients with monthly income (≤₹5,000: OR = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.59–0.84; p <0.001), residence outside Muzaffarpur district, locoregional disease extent and lack of government financial scheme coverage were also independently associated with reduced treatment uptake.
Conclusion: The cancer profile observed reflects a high burden of preventable and tobacco-related cancers, late-stage presentation and substantial socioeconomic barriers hindering treatment uptake and completion. The present HBCR data can be used as a database for diverse epidemiological studies, expanding treatment infrastructure and planning cancer control programs.
