Cancer is perhaps the most dreadful word to hear for anyone, not just for being a scary disease but for being too costly, as per a Health Ministry report. It was being told that with the advancement in the field of medical science, cost has risen to an extent that it has become very dicey to choose between health and cost attached.

If statistics are to be believed, the cost as of now is somewhere around 500 million a year and it could touch the ceiling soon. The claims have been made on the data available for the year 2008/09, but with the way medical science is exploring, cost could certainly escalate to an unbearable level.

Even the same has been mentioned in the report on the basis of the incidence rate of breast, colorectal, prostate and lymphoid cancers. Cost could touch the mark of about $117m by 2021, if the same trend followed in near future.

While it could make one wonder about the maximum limit, the Health Minister, Tony Ryall, seems to be quite unperturbed about the skyrocketing cost.

However, the only factor that could have made a difference in the total cost was the financial burden being pushed by range of awareness programs, including breast and cervical screening programmes and many more.

"Better prevention will be part of the solution, but the most effective way to contain costs is by increasing productivity", said Tony Ryall.

With excessive cost pinching the pockets of a common man, it would be worth seeing how health ministry would handle the challenge.