Lung cancer in Pakistan, where do we stand?

Farhan Ahmed Majeed, Abdul Rehman Azeem, Nabeela Farhan
Author Information
  1. Farhan Ahmed Majeed: Institute of Pure and Applied Biology, Microbiology Division, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan.
  2. Abdul Rehman Azeem: House Officer, CMH Lahore.
  3. Nabeela Farhan: General Physician, Cantonment Board Hospital.

Abstract

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in males and second most common in females after breast cancer. We have compared our data with the international statistics to see where do we stand. In Pakistan, we do not have a valid central cancer registry at present which can provide a true picture of lung cancer. Therefore, we used statistics of GLOBOCON 2012, in order to evaluate the true burden of lung cancer in our population through the recently established data by PHRC (Pakistan Health and Research council). Our analysis showed that data depicting true incidence and mortality of lung cancer in Pakistan are lacking. GLOBOCON 2012 placed lung cancer as the 3rd most common cancer in Pakistan while PHRC 2016 placed it as the 10th most common cancer irrespective of the rise in smoking incidence in Pakistan over the past one decade. This calls for an urgent need to formulate a valid central cancer registry in the country in association with the local bodies.

Keywords

MeSH Term

Adolescent
Adult
Age Distribution
Aged
Air Pollution
Carcinoma
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans
Incidence
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Lung Neoplasms
Male
Middle Aged
Occupational Exposure
Pakistan
Registries
Sex Distribution
Smoking
Young Adult

Word Cloud

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