Trends in Cancer Prevalence in Punjab, Pakistan: A Systematic Study from 2010 to 2016

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. However, in Pakistan, in the absence of a national cancer registry, it is difficult to predict the current status of cancer incidence. Therefore, a need was felt to design a study that can give a depiction of the prevalence of common cancer types and their relevance to the local population in the absence of a proper cancer registry system. In view of this, data was collected from 2010 to 2016 for breast, prostate, head and neck, cervical and colorectal cancer from the cancer hospitals and centres located all over Punjab, Pakistan. All the data were analysed to calculate prevalence percentage, gender-based incidence rate, crude rate, and Age-specific rate (ASR) for each cancer type. The results showed that breast cancer was the most common type and its prevalence showed a linear increase through the study period (P < 0.001). Breast cancer (6561) was followed by prostate (1183), head and neck (833), cervical (697) and colorectal cancer (531) in terms of prevalence. Gender-specific cancers like breast, prostate, and cervical were found to be more common as compared to others. In the case of head and neck and colorectal cancers, males were more susceptible as compared to females. There is a radical increase in cancer cases in the study area and the same could be extrapolated to the whole country. Therefore, for the appropriate and focused efforts to combat this increasing trend of prevalence, it should be constantly monitored, which leads to the recommendation of an effective cancer registry system in the country.