; the registry staff routinely visited all hospitals and pathological laboratories in eastern Libya (1.6 million inhabitants) and collected information from all death registration offices. A huge archive of prevalent cases was established before the 2003 data were collected. A total of 997 cases of primary cancers were registered among residents in 2003. The world age-standardized incidence rate for all sites combined (except nonmelanoma skin) was 118 per 100,000 for men and 95 per 100,000 for women. The most frequently diagnosed malignancies in males were lung cancer (19%) and colorectal cancer (10%), followed by cancers of the head and neck (9%) and bladder (9%). Among females, they were breast cancer (26%), cancer of the colon and rectum (9%), uterus (7%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (5%). Our study provides data on cancer incidence in eastern Libya, and confirms that cancer incidence is much lower than in western countries. Moreover, observed patterns indicate that the incidence of many cancers, including those of the lung, breast, colon, rectum and bladder is quite different from previous estimates based on the data available from the neighboring countries. ' 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: Benghazi; cancer; incidence; Libya; population-based registry Cancer will become an increasingly important health problem in developing countries in the coming decades. Growing and ageing populations, increasing tobacco consumption and exposure to other known risk factors (e.g., industrialization and westernization of diet and lifestyle) will all contribute to dramatically increase the number of new cancer cases, especially in African countries. 1,2 The establishment of several new cancer registries in Africa in the last 15 years 3-8 will provide more accurate statistics and help to improve both the monitoring of cancer trends over time and our understanding of this growing epidemic. Although cancer registration activity in Africa is growing rapidly, until now no cancer incidence data have been available for a defined population within Libya. 7,[9][10][11] In this paper, we report for the first time the statistics on cancer incidence from the population-based Benghazi Cancer Registry (BCR), which was established in 2002 under the auspices of the National Research Center and located in Garyounis University, in eastern Libya. Material and methodsThe BCR covers a wide area of northeastern Libya, on the Mediterranean Sea coast (Fig. 1). The total population, according to 2003 estimates, is 1,632,051 (approximately 28% of the total Libyan population), with a high proportion of children (age 0-14: 35%) and young adults (age 15-29: 32%), while people older than 65 years only account for less than 5% (Fig. 2). The city of Benghazi (660,147 estimated population) is the major center of the region.Cases were found by active searching in all hospitals in which cancer may be diagnosed. The Department of Pathology of Garyounis University, located in the city of Benghazi, is the most important source of information because it provides his...

The epidemiology of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) has always been a source of fascination to researchers due to its heterogeneous characteristics of presentation. HL is an uncommon neoplasm of B-cell origin with an incidence that varies significantly by age, sex, ethnicity, geographic location and socioeconomic status. This complex pattern was also found to be replicated among Mediterranean basin populations. HL incidence rates progressively decreased from industrialized European countries such as France (ASR=2.61) and Italy (ASR=2.39) to less developed nations such as Albania (ASR=1.34) and Bosnia Herzegovina (ASR=1.1). Regarding HL mortality we have found that countries with the lowest incidence rates show the highest number of deaths from this cancer and viceversa. Finally, a wide gap in terms of survival was showed across the Mediterranean basin with survival rates ranged from 82.3% and 85.1% among Italian men and women, to 53.3 % and 59.3% among Libyan men and women, respectively. Factors such as the degree of socio-economic development, the exposure to risk factors westernization-related, the availability of diagnostic practices along with different genetic susceptibilities to HL may explain its variation across Mediterranean countries. Furthermore, the lack of health resources decisively contribute to the poor prognosis recorded in less developed region. In the future, the introduction of appropriate and accessible treatment facilities along with an adequate number of clinical specialists in the treatment of HL and other cancers are warranted in order to improve the outcomes of affected patients and treat a largely curable type of cancer in disadvantaged regions.

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