The incidence of lung cancer in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
BACKGROUND
Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, with an estimated number of 1.3 million new cases as of 2002. This is the first report from the countries that comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).


METHODS
All the primary lung cancer cases registered in the Gulf Center for Cancer Registration during 1998 to 2001 were used to calculate the age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) per 100,000 person-years by the direct standardization method.


RESULTS
Overall, there were 1607 (1261 males, 346 females) primary lung cancer cases registered during this period with the male to female ratio of 3.6:1. The highest ASR was in Bahrain (34.3 for males, 12.1 for females) followed by Qatar (18.5 for males, 5.5 for females) and Kuwait (13.8 for males, 4.0 for females); the lowest rate was in Saudi Arabia (4.8 for males, 1.3 for females). The mean age at diagnosis for males ranged from 68.7 years in Bahrain to 59.2 years in Oman. For females it ranged from 68.2 years in Bahrain to 58.0 years in Oman. Squamous cell carcinoma in males (except in Qatar) and adenocarcinoma in females were the predominant histological type.


CONCLUSIONS
Cancer of the lung is one of the common cancers among males in all the GCC countries and ranks second among Bahraini females. Adenocarcinomas were more common in women than men.
Al-Hamdan
Nasser
N
Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. nhamdan@kfshrc.edu.sa
Al-Jarallah
Mohammed
M
Al-Jarallah
Mohammed
M
Ravichandran
Kandasamy
K
Al-Sayyad
Jamal
J
Al-Lawati
Jawad
J
Khazal
Zainab
Z
Al-Khateeb
Falah
F
Abdulwahab
Abdulaziem
A
Al-Mulla
Ahmed
A
Al-Asfour
Adel
A
Bazarbashi
Shouki
S
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008877:Middle East / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology