The Travel Burden of Childhood Cancer Care in India

A multi-center study of 22,328 children with cancer treated between 2005 and 2019 at three major Indian centers (AIIMS and RGCI in Delhi, WIA in Chennai) measured the real geographic cost of accessing specialized care.

The median motorized travel time was 161 minutes. Nearly three-quarters of patients (73.5%) traveled more than 60 minutes to reach treatment. Male children and those with solid tumors were more likely to face prolonged travel.

The findings make visible a structural problem: specialized pediatric oncology remains concentrated in a small number of urban hubs, forcing families to absorb significant time and distance burdens. The authors call for expansion of services beyond major cities and stronger regional referral networks.

This Ledger Entry expands how the reader thinks by converting a widely acknowledged access problem into concrete travel-time data at scale, strengthening the case for more distributed models of childhood cancer care in India.