Cancer Mortality in Basrah

Abstract

This study aimed at determining the burden of cancer as a cause of death in Basrah over three selected years; namely 1989, 1997 and 2005. All death registries in Basrah city, Districts and sub districts were used as sources of information for data compiling. Every death recorded in the three years was checked for cause of death and all cases for which any type of cancer written as the cause of death were identified. Data related to age, sex, place of residence, type of cancer, place where death was certified and year of death were obtained. In addition, the numbers of total deaths due to all causes in each year were also recorded. The results indicate a total of 297 deaths in 1989, 499 deaths in 1997 and 649 deaths in 2005 could be attributed to cancer. Regarding sex distribution of deaths, slightly more deaths occurred in males (53.8%) than in females (46.2%) with significant rise of cancer in females in 2005. Cancer as a cause of death represents about 5% of all deaths with some degree of increase in 1997 and 2005 as compared to 1989, but no major change in the cancer specific death rates among different years. Geographically, the distribution shows significant but not substantial variation with years. The mean age of dead persons was similar in the three years. The leading cancer deaths were those of lung, urinary bladder, blood, breast, lymphomas and CNS. The overall risk of death is not much different in different years except for a slight increase in 1997 and 2005 in comparison to 1989. Most cancers show stable or slightly fluctuating level of risk of death with time. Slight rise in the risk of death may be noticed in cancers of CNS, blood (leukemia), Bones, lymphomas and Colon-rectum. The researchers suggest that the stable level of mortality could reflect some improvement in treatment based on early diagnosis of many cancers. A study covering at least ten years is highly recommended to establish more sound time trend in cancer mortality.

Cancer Mortality in Basrah: A household Survey Results

“…This is true in Basrah and elsewhere as shown in this paper. The leading cancers as causes of death are not very much different from those reported in previous studies in Basrah [8][9][10] and in other parts of the world. [7,20] Some of these cancers are related to avoidable risk factors.…”

“…The cancer specific mortality rate documented in this study at 68.0 per 100000 population is much higher than any figure reported before. [8][9][10] Cancer is a real health problem in Basrah. It is a significant contributor to the toll of death (only second to cardiovascular diseases) and a major consumer of resources.…”

“…On the other hand, mortality rates (5-10-year mortality rates) may approximate incidence rates for fatal cancers like lung, liver and pancreas . [3][4][5][6][7] Previous studies in Basrah [8][9][10] indicated that cancer is an important contributor to the overall mortality at population level. All the previous published papers, however, were based on data obtained from official routine statistics which inherit, by their nature, certain limitations such us being incomplete and may be inaccurate.…”

One-year survival of children with malignant diseases in Basrah

“…Few previous attempts were made to present data on mortality. [10][11][12][13] No doubt that studying survival of children after cancer is one of the means to scrutiny of the effectiveness of diagnosis and treatment. A high quality care in terms of early diagnosis and adequate treatment should lead to reduction in the risk of death and improving the chance for survivorship.…”

Clinical Characteristics, Etiology and Phylogenetic Distribution of Bacteremia in Patients with Malignancies in Basrah Province

“…Cancer is a growing problem over the world, the etiology of many types of cancer is still ambiguous and the role of specific risk factors in certain cancers is unsolved with across the world, Iraq as whole and the southern region including Basrah , has been exposed to tremendous environmental damage as a result of wars, economic siege and lack of resources to protect or reinstate secure environment, as a consequence, the health condition of the population was under high risk of different diseases such as cancer (Essa et al, 2007). The latest statistics presented by Iraqi Cancer Board / Cancer Registry Center for the year 2011 recorded 1420 cancer cases in Basrah province outperforming the rest of Iraq's provinces cases (CSO, 2014).…”