Shimla, April 5 - More than 2,000 new cases of cancer have been reported in Himachal Pradesh in the past one year, Health Minister Rajeev Bindal said here Thursday.

"As many as 2,471 new cases were reported in two medical colleges (Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital in Shimla and Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College in Tanda) from March 31, 2011 till February 2012," Bindal told the state assembly.

He said during this period the total reported cancer cases were 23,241 consisting of both old and new cases.

In 2010 and 2009, the reported cases in the state were 19,705 and 16,405, respectively.

Bindal said the maximum number of 623 cases of cancer in respiratory and intrathoracic organs were registered in the past one year. Cancer cases of genito-urinary organs and the digestive tract were 519 and 478, respectively.