Around 15,000 people, including children, are reported to have contracted some types of cancer annually in Sri Lanka and of 15,000 new cases 60 per cent were women. The alarming increase could be attributed to smoking, drinking water boiled in aluminium pots and consumption of junk food, the Health Ministry said.

Healthcare Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told The Island that a comprehensive survey conducted by the Health Ministry had sent shock waves. At Maharagama Cencer hospital around 850 patients were under treatment and about 700 patients had been visiting clinics daily.

He said that to facilitate treatment procedure a state-of-the-art Linear Accelerator System Unit was installed at the Maharagama cancer hospital and it cost Rs.1,000 million. The new machine had been installed underground at the Maharagama hospital premises and it would cost Rs.30 million to the government to maintain.

Minister de Silva said that unlike cobalt therapy the Linear Accelerator System unit had been designed to treat cancer patients through highly advanced technology with radiation. About 60 patients could be treated by the new machine a day and in the private sector hospitals one patient was required to pay Rs.2 lakhs for the treatment. The services were entirely free of charge in Maharagama.

Referring to the rapid increase of cancer cases, Minister de Silva noted that according statistics, about 50,000 cancer patients were under treatment in Sri Lanka with annual increase of 15,000 patients. Breast cancer, womb cancer and lung cancer of people were found to be on the rise and early detection was the only solution. It was the tendency of most women to seek medical attention once the cancer cells grew as they were shy of getting timely medical attention.