Cancer surveillance in Mato Grosso, Brazil: methodological and operational aspects of a university extension/research project

Abstract

Objective: To describe the methodological and operational aspects of the “Project for surveillance of cancer and its associated factors: population-based and hospital-based registry” (VIGICAN), in the state of Mato Grosso (MT), Brazil. Methods: VIGICAN was divided into two projects: a university extension one, which updated the data from the Population-based Cancer Registry (PBCR) of MT in the 2008-2016 period; and a research project, which collected primary data, through individual interviews and analysis of medical records of people with a diagnosis of cancer, aged 18 years or older, treated at reference hospitals for oncology. To analyze the factors associated with cancer, the following variables were collected: socioeconomic and demographic, social support, health status and behavior, and environmental exposure. Results: In the 2008-2016 period, approximately one hundred thousand cases of cancer (incident and prevalent) were reported in the PBCR Cuiabá and PBCR Interior. After validation procedures, 50 thousand incident cases were elected. The survey interviewed 1,012 patients, 38.2% living in the municipalities of Cuiabá and Várzea Grande, 60.4% in small cities of the state, and 1.4% in other states. Preliminary data showed that the majority were women (55.0%) and younger than 60 years of age (54.3%). Among the interviewees, 7.2% reported smoking tobacco, 15.5% consumed alcoholic beverages (15.5%), and 32.7% lived nearby crops. Conclusion: The development of these projects allowed the integration of education with health services and will enable the recognition of specificities and different exposure scenarios and factors associated with cancer in the Mato Grosso territory.