Cancer Notification at a Referral Hospital of Kermanshah, Western Iran (2006-2009)

Background: Cancer is a major public health problem and the leading cause of mortality in both males andfemales in developed and developing countries. The incidence of cancer is gender dependent. Among Iranians,it is the third cause of death. Materials and
Methods: The information recorded in the files of all patients (7,695individuals) pathologically diagnosed with cancer in Imam Reza referral hospital of Kermanshah University ofMedical Sciences during the four year period of 2006-2009 were reviewed and analyzed using SPSS statisticalsoftware package version 16.0.
Results: Around 61.6% of reported cancer cases were males and 38.4% werefemales. The most prevalent reported malignant tumors occurred at the age group of 70-79 years in males andin females these tumors were presented in the ages of 60-69 years. The most prevalent cancers among studiedpatients were gastrointestinal (GI) cancers with a frequency of 22.9% [gastric 10.7%, colorectal 6.9%, andesophageal 6%]. The second, third and forth prevalent cancers were blood at 16.4%, lung 13.5% and bladder12.8%, respectively. In males the cancers of GI (25.6%) were the most prevalent followed in order of frequencyby bladder (18%), blood (17.6%), lung (17.4%) and prostate (6.8%) . In females the most frequent recordedcancer was breast (24.1%) followed in order of frequency by GI (20.5%), blood (14.4%), lung (7.3%), uterus(6.2%) and ovary (5.1%) . Breast cancer was the most prevalent cancer (27%) in the age group of 40-49 years.
Conclusions: The present study provides frequency data for various types of cancers in both males and femalesfrom a referral hospital of Kermanshah that are comparable with some reports from other areas of the country.