New Delhi, Mar 10 (PTI) In alarming news, India is witnessing a rise of 1.2 per cent in number of cancer patients annually.

There are 28 lakh cancer patients in the country at any given point of time, as per information collected by the Population Based Cancer Registry functioning under the National Cancer Registry Programme of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Further, as per the report of the ICMR on "Time Trends in Cancer Incidence Rates (1982-2005)", the number of cancer patients is growing over the years at an average of approximately 1.2 per cent per year.

The number of cases of persons with non-communicable diseases, including cancer, is rising mainly due to several factors like unhealthy lifestyle, increase in population, environmental pollution and use of tobacco.