Cancer Burden in Bangladesh: Insights From National Institute of Cancer Research & Hospital, 2014-2020

Bangladesh, a lower-middle-income country in South Asia, faces a rapidly rising cancer burden. In the absence of a population-based cancer registry (PBCR), monitoring national patterns remains challenging and constrains evidence-informed policymaking. We analyzed temporal trends in cancer distribution at the country's largest national cancer hospital to inform priorities for a cancer control strategy.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of 82,209 histologically and/or clinically confirmed cancer cases diagnosed or treated at the National Institute of Cancer Research & Hospital, between January 2014 and December 2020. Demographic and clinical data were extracted from hospital records, and cancers were grouped according to their primary anatomic site. Annual distributions and sex-specific patters of the 10 most common cancers were examined, and temporal changes were illustrated using trend diagrams.

Over 7 years, the most common cancers were of the respiratory system (19.6%-22.5%), digestive organs (18.8%-22.8%), and breast (12%-14.9%). Comparison between 2014 and 2020 revealed notable increases in the proportion of digestive organ cancers (+3.6%), hematopoietic and reticuloendothelial malignancies (+1%), and breast cancer (+0.8%), whereas respiratory cancers (-2.3%), lymph node cancers (-1.1%), and bone and cartilage cancers (-1%) decreased. A marked spike in female genital cancers was observed in 2015 (11.84% v 9.9% average across other years). Findings should be interpreted in the context of hospital-based case mix and referral patterns.

In this large tertiary cancer hospital in Bangladesh, respiratory system, digestive organ, and breast cancers represented the highest burden, with rising proportions of proportional increases in digestive, hematopoietic, and breast cancers and declines in respiratory and lymph node cancers, provide early signals of an evolving cancer landscape. While not population-representative, these trends highlight the urgent need to establish government-supported PBCRs in well-defined subnational regions to inform effective cancer control strategies for Bangladesh.