Pattern and incidence of cancer at El Obeid Hospital, Western Sudan.

Abstract

Background:The growing population of elderly people, the changes in life style, the new dietary habits and the HIV pandemic resulted in more exposure to cancer promoting factors in developing countries, including Sudan. Sudan is a large county with different climatic regions and the population has wide diversity of ethnic groups with varying cultures. Nevertheless, the burden of cancer in the different regions of the country is unknown.Objectives: To study the incidence rate and the pattern of cancer at El Obeid Teaching Hospital, Western Sudan. Patients and Methods: The records of all patients admitted with cancer to the wards of El ObeidTeaching Hospital, Western Sudan during 2006 and 2007 were studied. The cancers were classified according to the organs affected and then ranked in their order of relative frequency. The mean age, age range, gender, the incidence rates and the relative frequency rates were calculated. Results: There were 111 new cancer patients in 2006 and 169 patients in 2007. Females were 52.9