Panaji, 21 August: In a significant move aimed at strengthening cancer surveillance, prevention and treatment planning, the Goa government has declared cancer a “notified disease” across the State, making reporting of newly diagnosed cancer cases mandatory for doctors, hospitals, laboratories and other healthcare institutions.

The Public Health Department issued the notification dated August 20, 2026, exercising powers under Section 57 of the Goa Public Health Act, 1985. The decision is intended to establish a comprehensive and continuous system for monitoring cancer incidence, mortality, patterns and trends in Goa.

Under the notification, all newly diagnosed cancer cases, including in-situ and invasive malignancies, will have to be reported to the designated authority in the manner prescribed by the Directorate of Health Services (DHS). Cases diagnosed through histopathology, cytology, haematology, imaging, clinical diagnosis or other accepted diagnostic methods will come within its ambit.

Reporting preferably within seven days

Every newly diagnosed cancer case should be reported as soon as practicable, preferably within seven days of diagnosis, and in any event no later than one month from the date of diagnosis. Cancer deaths will also have to be notified wherever required in the format prescribed by the DHS.

The reporting obligation will cover government hospitals and health institutions, government and private medical colleges and teaching hospitals, private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics, oncology and day-care cancer centres, pathology, haematology and cytology laboratories, diagnostic and imaging centres, hospices and palliative-care institutions, as well as health and cancer-screening programmes.

Every medical practitioner, pathologist and institution diagnosing or treating cancer will be responsible for reporting such cases.

State Cancer Registry to be established

The Chief Medical Officer of the Non-Communicable Disease Cell (NCDC) under the DHS will function as the designated authority and nodal officer. Appropriate State and district-level officers will also be designated for receiving, validating and monitoring cancer notifications.

The DHS will establish or designate a State Cancer Registry/State Cancer Surveillance System for compilation, validation, analysis and monitoring of reported cancer cases.

The government has also provided safeguards for patient privacy. Individual patient information collected under the system will be treated as confidential and used primarily for public-health surveillance, programme planning, research and monitoring. Ordinarily, only aggregated and appropriately anonymised data will be published.

Heads of government and private healthcare establishments have been made responsible for ensuring compliance. Failure to follow the notification will be dealt with under the provisions of the Goa Public Health Act, 1985 and applicable rules.

The notification will come into force from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.