A hospital based study of cancer admissions

A study was done on patients admitted to Penang Hospital with malignant disease in 1995. A total of 1333 patients (638 male, 695 female) with 1335 malignancies were studied. The majority (77.3%) were aged 41-80 years. The commonest cancers in males were cancers of lung, nasopharynx, colon and rectum, leukemia and larynx whereas the commonest malignancies in females were of the breast, cervix, colon and rectum, leukemia and ovarian/lung carcinoma. The average number of admissions was 2.2 and the average length of stay was 12.7 days. Cancer admissions account for a significant proportion of the inpatient workload of Penang Hospital.