Study shows breast cancer most common in Sindh

Finds malignancies affect people aged 20 years and above

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HYDERABAD:

An academic review of all the malignancies registered at the Hyderabad Cancer Registry (HCR) for a period of four years has shown the oral, prostate and urinary bladder as the most common cancers in males, while a majority of females suffered breast, oral, and ovarian cancers.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, the study found that "Both the genders combined, breast cancer was the most common malignancy in Sindh while oral cancer topped the list in males."

The study was carried out by the LUMHS in collaboration with Karachi Cancer Registry, Health Research Institute, National Institute of Child Health, and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi. The varsity aimed to estimate cancer incidence for a period of four years (2020-23), in various age groups and genders, to identify common malignancies.

Vice Chancellor LUMHS, Prof Dr Ikram Din Ujjan, and Dr Shahid Pervez from Aga Khan University, Karachi, supervised the exercise. The university also wanted to check the risk factors to cancer control initiative and prioritisation by the government and private sectors.

All the cancer biopsies were transported to the central comprehensive diagnostic facility of LUMHS in Jamshoro and Hyderabad. The patients were divided into three age groups of up to 14 years, up to 19 years, and 20 years and above.

A total of 7,169 malignant cases were evaluated including of 3,310 males, which amounted to 46.2%, and 3,859 or 53.8% females. The study found that malignancies overwhelmingly affected people aged 20 or above with 6,967 or 97.18% tumors occurring in the adults. Some 104 or 1.45% pertained to adolescents and 98 or 1.37% to children.

Oral cancer, the study underlined, was the second most common cancer in females. The study pointed out that at the HCR oral cancer has been witnessed to be the most prevalent one among the males and the second most among females even though globally it is at the 13th place among all types of cancers.