Exploring geographic and age variation in cancer incidence in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Cancer is worldwide recognized as an uncontrollable, incurable and fatal disease, caused by the spread of abnormal cells. The main objective of this study which has been conducted as a collaborative research with National Cancer Control Program (NCCP) is to analyze the characteristics of the age variation and regional patterns of cancer incidences in Sri Lanka. Information on newly diagnosed cancer patients was obtained from the National Cancer Registry (NCR) maintained by National Cancer Control Program (NCCP), Sri Lanka for the years 2005 and 2006. Age Standardized Rates (ASR) of incidence and Estimated Annual Percentage Change (EAPC) were calculated for the period 2005 - 2006. An overall increase in incidence rate was observed from the analysis. The uighcct ar.nua1 rate of cancer incidence was observed for males and females of the age group 65 - 69. Further, the number of incidences peaked for the range 50 - 59 for both genders. Moreover, geographic variation in age-adjusted incident rates among males and females were observed using SatScan datamining tool. It is identified that among 25 districts, Breast and Cervical Cancer are the mostly distributed cancer types among females while Bronchus Cancer and Lung Cancer are mostly distributed among males. Monitoring the trends and regional variations of cancer incidence supports the implementation and evaluation of regional education interventions which could increase the awareness of cancer symptoms.