Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Cancers in the North of Iran: Results of Mazandaran Population-Based Cancer Registry

OBJECTIVE Although initial pathological studies indicate the high prevalence of gastrointestinal cancers in northern Iran, to our knowledge, no population-based cancer registry studies have been conducted on gastrointestinal cancers. Hence, the present research aimed to review the epidemiologic status of gastrointestinal cancers in northern Iran region using the population-based cancer registry data. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted on 4460 subjects in the Mazandaran Population-Based Cancer Registry, which is located in the North of Iran. Among gastrointestinal cancers diagnosed between 2014 and 2015, cancers with codes C15 to C26 were collected. Age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) (per 100,000 person-years) were calculated as standardized to the world standard population using the direct standardization method. RESULTS This study results showed that a total of 1318 (29.5%) people were afflicted with gastrointestinal cancers in the studied area, the most prevalent of which included gastric cancer (44.2%), colorectal cancer (27.2%), and esophageal cancer (13.5%). The mean age of the subjects was 66.15 +/- 14.7, and 804 of them (61%) were male. ASR in men and women was equal to 5.56 and 4.03 for esophageal cancer, 20.44 and 10.14 for gastric cancer, 1.61 and 1.4 for pancreatic cancer, and 10.86 and 8.74 for colorectal cancer and there was a significancant difference (p=0.008) for sex distribution in these cancers. CONCLUSION The findings obtained in this study suggested that gastrointestinal cancers account for a substantial percentage of cancers in northern Iran and that gastric cancer is the most prevalent type of gastrointestinal cancers in this region.