Identifying High-Risk Clusters of Gastric Cancer Incidence in Iran, 2004 - 2009

Background: Gastric cancer is considered as the second most prevalent cancer in Iran. The present researchsought to identify high risk clusters of gastric cancer with mapping using space-time scan statistics. Materialsand
Methods: The present research is of descriptive type. The required data were gathered from the registeredcancer reports of Cancer Control Office in the Center for Non Communicable Disease of the Ministry of Health(MOH). The data were extracted at province level in the time span of 2004-9. Sat-Scan software was used toanalyse the data and to identify high risk clusters. ArcGIS10 was utilized to map the distribution of gastriccancer and to demonstrate high risk clusters.
Results: The most likely clusters were found in Ardabil, Gilan,Zanjan, East-Azerbaijan, Qazvin, West-Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Hamadan, Tehran and Mazandaran between2007 and 2009. It was statistically significant at the p-value below 0.05.
Conclusions: High risk regions includedNorthern, West-North and central provinces, particularly Ardabil, Kurdistan, Mazandaran and Gilan. Morescreening tests are suggested to be conducted in high risk regions along with more frequent epidemiologicalstudies to enact gastric cancer prevention programs.