Lung cancer more common in men, breast cancer in women : NICRH report
About 55% of the patients who came to the cancer institute during the period were women and 45% men
The prevalence of lung cancer is higher in males and breast cancer in females among the patients coming to the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH), the only tertiary level centre of the country engaged in multidisciplinary cancer patient management, according to a report.
The report has been prepared by analysing the data of 35,733 patients who came to the NICRH from January 2018 to December 2020.
During this period, 83,795 new patients came to the hospital and 42.6% of them were diagnosed with cancer.
Dr Zahirul Islam, associate professor of the Department of Epidemiology, NICRH, presented the report at an event held at the institute's auditorium in Mohakhali, Dhaka, on Wednesday morning.
According to the report, 55% of the patients who came to the cancer institute during the period were women and 45% were men.
Lung cancer accounted for 26.6% of cancer among male patients while among women 29.3% were affected by breast cancer.
However, the number of lung cancer patients was highest in both men and women, the combined percentage of which is 18.7%.
The majority of patients attending the outpatient department (OPD) of the NICRH were from Dhaka division (33.5%) and Chattogram division (22.7%).
Around 88.8% of the patients did not receive any kind of cancer treatment before attending the NICRH, as per the report.
Among all patients, agricultural activities were the main profession of men – about 35.6%, while almost 93.9% of females were housewives.
Professor Dr Habibullah Talukder Raskin, head of the Department of Cancer Epidemiology, NICRH, said the main purpose of the cancer registry report is to use the information in evaluating and improving cancer treatments.
"We can learn about the cancer situation in the country from this sort of report, such as the most common types of cancer, the social, economic and gender related information of patients, etc," he said.
Population-based cancer registry has not yet been launched in the country. However, the Epidemiology Department of the NICRH started hospital-based registration in 2004. It has been publishing the cancer registry report every year since 2005.
