Background: The aim of this research was to perform an epidemiologic survey of esophageal cancer in Ardabilprovince. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 661 patients diagnosed with EC werestudied from March 2002 to May 2011 e. The necessary data were collected with a checklist from the documentsin Ardabil Cancer Registry (ACR) and analyzed by statistical methods with SPSS.18 software. Results: Of thetotal new cases of EC registered in ARC during study period, 430 (65.1%) of patients were male with the maleto female standard ratio was 1.18, with a statistically significant gender bias. The most common morphology ofEC was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, 68.8%) followed by adenocarcinoma (28.5%). It was observed that inmost of patients, EC lesions were in the middle third of esophagus. In addition, most patients were rural andabout 40% had smoking habits. The age-standardized incidence rate of cancers was 48.4 per 100,000 amongfemales and males. The annual incidence rates in males and females was 7.1 and 6.7 per 100,000; respectively. Conclusions: Results showed that the prevalence and annual incidence rate of cancer in Ardabil province is lowerthan other areas of the country with a male predominance and a relatively high proprortion of adenocarcinomas.
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