Cancer burden in the Caribbean: an overview of the Martinique Cancer Registry profile

BACKGROUND: Cancer indicators are essential information for cancer surveillance and cancer research strategy development. The Martinique Cancer Registry (MCR) is a population-based cancer Registry (PBCR) that has been recording cancer data since its creation in 1981. This article provides cancer incidence and mortality data for all cancers and for major tumor sites. METHODS: The registry collects all new cancer cases, details of the individual affected, tumor site and follow-up. World-standardized incidence and mortality rates were calculated, by tumor site and sex for solid tumors from the MCR database for the study period 2001–2015. RESULTS: Over the period 2001–2015, a total of 22,801 new cases were diagnosed; 13,863 in men (60.8%) and 8938 in women (39.2%). In 2011–2015, 1631 new cases were diagnosed per year. Age-standardized (to the world population) incidence rates for all cancers, were 289.8 per 100,000 men and 171.0 per 100,000 women. Breast, colon-rectum and stomach were the most common cancer sites in women. Prostate, colon-rectum and stomach were the main sites in men. Martinique has higher incidence rates of prostate and stomach cancer than mainland France. CONCLUSIONS: Prostate and stomach cancers have high incidence and rank first among the four major tumor sites. Providing data for the French zone of the Caribbean is essential to contributing to the development of high-priority public health measures for the Caribbean zone.