Prevalence of cancers diagnosed in Jamhuriyat Hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan

BACKGROUNDS: Throughout the world, there exists a clear need for the maintenance of cancer statistics, forming an essential part of any rational programme of cancer control, health-care planning, etiological research, primary and secondary prevention, benefiting both individuals and society. The present work reports only on the prevalence of cancers in the Oncology Department of Jamhuriyat Hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan following several decades of war. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A quantitative retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using the medical records of patients diagnosed and treated from October 2015 to December 2017. Data includes information on gender, age, economic status, address and types of cancer diagnosed. The data was transferred to a customized form and analysed using Microsoft Excel program to classify cancer types. RESULTS: The total number of patients with completed documents were 1025. Of these, 403 (39.3%) were male and 622 (60.7%) female. Most of the patients were in the age range of 20–70 years old. The most common cancers in women were breast cancer (45.8%), followed by oesophagus (12.5%), colorectal (4.8%), Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (4.7%), sarcoma (4.7%), ovary (3.8%), both stomach and liver (2.6%) and cervix uteri (1.9%). Contrarily to men, esophageal cancer was highest (21.8%), followed by stomach (12.2%), Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (9.4%), sarcoma (8.9%), gastroesophageal junction (8.9%), colorectal (8.6%), Hodgkin lymphoma (4.7%), testis (4.2%), liver (3.2%), lung (2.7%) and Nonmelanoma skin squamous cell carcinoma 9 (2.2%). CONCLUSION: Results showed that the most frequent cancers among Afghans were breast and oesophagus. The most common cancer in men was oesophagus and stomach at the age range of 50–70 years while in women, breast and oesophagus cancers were common and within the age range of 25–65 years old.