The Pattern of Cancer in Iraq (2015-2018): An Overview

Background: The world Health organization considered cancer to be the second leading cause of death throughout the world accounting for about 9.6 million deaths, (one in six deaths) during the year 2018. We have previously reported the patterns of various types of cancer in Iraq and the pattern of cancer by primary tumor site in several publications. However, there is a continuous need for an updated comprehensive knowledge about the pattern of cancers to help in planning preventive and therapeutic services. The aim of this paper is to provide a recent account of the pattern of cancer in Iraq by primary site during four-year period (2015-2018).

Patients and Methods: During four-year period (2015-2018), 111350 new cases of cancer were recorded by the Iraqi Ministry of health including 25,269 cases during the year 2015, 25556 cases during the year 2016, 29023 cases during the year 2017, and 31502 cases during the year 2018.

Results: During this four-year period, breast cancer was the number one cancer in Iraq accounting for 19.74% of the total cases of cancer. Bronchial and pulmonary cancer was the second most common cancer during this four-year period accounting for 8% of the total cases of cancer. Leukemia was the third most common cancer during this four-year period accounting for 6.6% of the total cases of cancer.

Conclusion: The findings in this study suggests that the incidence rate of new cases were increasing during the previous decades as it was 38.91/100,000 population in 1994, 52.8\100,000 in 2006, and 82.62/100,000 population in 2018. The pattern of cancers in Iraq was not very similar to the latest global pattern reported by the World Health Organization.

Keywords: Cancer pattern, primary site, Iraq.