Approximately 18,000 new cancer patients are diagnosed annually in Sri Lanka.

Annually, between 15,000 and 18,000 new cancer patients are identified in Sri Lanka, and about 2,000 of them suffer from blood cancers, states Specialist Doctor Buddhika Somawardhana of Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama. He revealed this information during a special awareness workshop organized by the Bone Marrow Transplant Survivors' Association held in Thalawathugoda.

Although bone marrow transplant surgeries performed for blood cancer patients are highly successful, if patients fail to properly follow medical advice thereafter, their lives could be at severe risk, he emphasized.

Dr. Somawardhana pointed out that one of the most serious problems in the country is that there are only four specialist doctors for treating blood cancer patients in the entire island, and three of them work at Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama. He also revealed that seven or eight other specialist doctors who were in the country are currently working abroad. Due to this shortage of doctors, medical professionals face various limitations in providing services to patients.

He states that complex treatment methods like bone marrow transplantation incur enormous costs, and although every patient has the right to receive treatment equally, the current situation has created inequality in accessing treatment based on the rich-poor divide. Even though the government provides many treatments free of charge under the free healthcare service, it is questionable whether all such high-cost treatments can be continuously provided for free. Due to the scarcity of certain specialized treatments and medications in the country, providing optimal treatment to cancer patients has been limited.

It was stated that while there is some capability to treat complex conditions like leukemia, certain modern treatment methods related to it are not yet implemented in Sri Lanka. However, a certain number of bone marrow transplants are currently being successfully performed in several government and private hospitals. Indian Specialist Doctor Dr. Mallikarjun Kalashetty, an expert in Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, participated as the chief speaker at this workshop, and several local doctors, including Specialist Doctor Nilupuli Gunaratne, also expressed their views.