# Less than 10 cancer biobanks serve India’s 25 lakh patients 2026-08-21T05:42:47+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet India has fewer than 10 dedicated cancer biobanks for an estimated 25 lakh people living with cancer, a shortage researchers say is slowing the development of diagnostics and treatments tailored to Indian patients. The country registers over 14 lakh new cancer cases and 5.5 lakh deaths each year, yet biobanks, repositories that store tumour tissue, blood and DNA linked to patient histories, remain critically scarce. Scientists at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, Tata Memorial Hospital and IIT-Madras told ThePrint that lack of a regulatory framework, inadequate funding and poor collaboration between hospitals and researchers are key reasons for the gap. Setting up one head-and-neck cancer biobank cost around Rs 4 crore, with annual maintenance of Rs 83 per sample, and no immediate financial returns. Age-standardised cancer incidence rose 26.4% between 1990 and 2023, from 84.8 to 107.2 per 100,000 people. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Cancer biobanks store tumour samples linked to patient histories, letting researchers find genetic mutations that drive disease. Without them, India's 25 lakh cancer patients and 14 lakh new cases each year rely on drug research done on Western populations, which may not match Indian genomics. The gap matters because targeted therapies, which match drugs to tumour genetics, now cost Rs 1-2 lakh per month. The 26.4% rise in age-standardised cancer incidence since 1990 only sharpens the need. Watch whether the upcoming National Cancer Registry programme or the new National Medical Devices Policy 2023 includes biobank funding. ## Coverage - theprint.in Leads with shortage and expert criticism of government inaction, frames lack of biobanks as a systemic failure This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: IIT Madras, Indian Council of Medical Research, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, Tata Memorial Hospital, World Breast Cancer Research Day Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/less-than-10-cancer-biobanks-serve-indias-25-lakh-patients/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/less-than-10-cancer-biobanks-serve-indias-25-lakh-patients/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/