Why it is in the news
On 5 October 2026, reporting in The Indian Express examined why lung cancer — now the leading cause of cancer deaths in India in the latest GLOBOCAN estimates of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) — is not part of the Government's population-based cancer screening, which at primary level looks only for oral, breast and cervical cancers. A companion account of a young non-smoker diagnosed at stage 3b, shared at the World Cancer Congress in Hong Kong, showed how screening criteria built on age and smoking history miss a large share of Indian patients.
The exam angle
Issue: Should India add lung cancer to its national screening programme, and if so, whom should it screen in a country where many patients never smoked cigarettes?