The pattern of malignancies in Karachi (1995 to 1996)

To determine the cancer pattern of the city of Karachi for the years 1995-1996.

The Karachi Cancer Registry, established in 1995 by the Government of Sindh, in collaboration with the IARC is an active registry. The staff collect the data pertaining to cancer patients and record it on the registry forms. Hospitals in Karachi, district south as well as some of the hospitals in other districts of the city, where patients are likely to go for treatment or diagnosis are visited. People residing in the district for more than six months prior to the onset of the malignancy were considered "residents". All the cases diagnosed on or after 1st January 1995 till 31st December 1996 were considered for analysis.

In the years 1995-96, the most common cancer sites among males were cancers of the lung, oral cavity and lymph nodes. For females, breast cancer ranked first, followed by cancer of the oral cavity and ovary. The age standardized rate for all cancers was 96.3 per 100,000 in males and 96.9 per 100,000 in females. At this early stage of registration we assume that the registry has a missing rate of approximately 20-25%.

The pattern of malignancies in Karachi is similar to the western countries, with lung and breast being the commonest tumors amongst the males and females respectively. The Asian countries have stomach/lung/oral cavity/liver as the commonest tumors amongst the males and cervix/breast amongst the females. Pakistan being a Muslim country, the incidence of cervical cancer showed an expected low figure.