THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF GASTROINTESTINAL CANCERS IN EAST-AZERBAIJAN: RESULTS OF A POPULATION-BASED CANCER REGISTRY

M. H. SOMI , SH. NAGHASHI, P. RZAEIFAR, S. FARHANG

Research Center of liver and gastrointestinal diseases of Tabriz University, Tabriz, IRAN

Background and aims: Regardless of the fact that cancers of GI tract have been reported to be the most common fatal cancer in East Azerbaijan, there is a serious lack of population-based studies in this region. This report describes the data derived from the liver and gastrointestinal diseases research center (LGDRC), the first population-based cancer registry in the East Azerbaijan Iran.

Methods and Materials: During One official year, in a cross-sectional study all of the new onset cases of cancers from East Azerbaijan province were collected and recorded from all treatment and educational centers, hospitals, pathology laboratories, radiotherapy and chemotherapy centers, Endoscopy centers, cancerous opium user patients and death certificates of East Azerbaijan province.

Results: A total of 4,922 cancers (mean age 60.2+18.13 years) were diagnosed during this population-based study. Of these, 56.8% (2114) were in males. ASRs for all cancers in males and females were 164.3 and 130.6 respectively. The top five sites for cancer in males (excluding skin cancer) according to the calculated ASR (world) were stomach (26.0), bladder (15.7), esophagus (12.4), colon and rectum (11.6) and blood (10.8); in females, they were breast (23.5), esophagus (11.7), stomach (11.6), colon and rectum (9.7) and nervous system (5.5). From 1665 GI cancer cases( nearly 1/3 of all cancers), 398 patients presented with esophageal cancer (55.3% male and 44.7%), 612 patients with gastric cancer (71.2% male and 28.8% female) and 337 cases were with colorectal cancer (55.4% male and 44.6% female). In gastric cancer, male to female ratio was 2.49 and the mean age of the males was significantly higher than females (P<0.0001). In the patients with GI cancers, 824 patients (53.8%) were ≥65 years, 522 (34.1%) middle age group and 125 patients (8.2%) in young adult group. In elderly group, 67.2% were male and 32.8% were female. Based on age-standardized rate (ASR), gastric cancer (222.30) in males and esophageal cancer (83.13) in females which were found to be the most common cancers in the elder group. The gastric cancer incidence rate in geriatric males was 3 times higher than females (80.81) of the same group.

Conclusion: In spite of increasing life expectancy and quality of life in Iran due to increasing of higher quality of life care demands. This study concluded a high incidence of gastrointestinal cancer especially in elderly and middle age group. Since the pattern of population is young pattern in Iran and they will be aged in a few years, gastrointestinal cancers must be look upon as an important issue in this target population. It is essential to emphasis the increasing need for research in different aspects of the prevention and the planning for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers the elderly.

Date: 2014-12-28; view: 878