Cancer Incidence Rates in Turkey in 2006: A Detailed Registry Based Estimation

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide a detailed report on cancer incidence in Turkey, a relativelylarge country with a population of 72 million. We present the estimates of the cancer burden in Turkey for2006, calculated using data from the eight population based cancer registries which have been set up in selectedprovinces representative of sociodemographic patterns in their regions.
Methods: We calculated age specificand age adjusted incidence rates (AAIR–world standard population) for each of registries separately. Weassigned a weighting coefficient for each registry proportional to the population size of the region which theregistry represents.
Results: We pooled a total of 24,428 cancers (14,581 males, 9,847 females). AAIRs per 100000 were: 210.1 in men and 129.4 in women for all cancer sites excluding non-melanoma skin cancer. The AAIRper 100 000 men was highest for lung cancer (60.3) followed by prostate (22.8), bladder (19.6), stomach (16.3)and colo-rectal (15.4) cancers. Among women the rate per 100 000 was highest for breast cancer (33.7) followedby colorectal (11.5), stomach (8.8), thyroid (8.8) and lung (7.7). The most striking findings about the cancerincidence in the provinces were the high incidence rates for stomach and esophageal cancers in Erzurum andhigh stomach cancer incidence rates in Trabzon for both sexes.
Conclusions: We are thus able to present themost accurate and realistic estimations for cancer incidence in Turkey so far. Lung, prostate, bladder, stomach,colorectal, larynx cancers in men and breast, colorectal, stomach, thyroid, lung, corpus uteri cancers in womenare the leading cancers respectively. This figure shows us tobacco related cancers, lung, bladder and larynx,predominate in men. Concurrently, we analyzed the data for each province separately, giving us the opportunityto present the differences in cancer patterns among provinces. The high incidences of stomach and esophagealcancers in East and high incidence of stomach cancer in Northeast regions are remarkable.