Iran cancer incidence should be corrected for under-ascertainment in cancer cases in the elderly (aged 65+).
OBJECTIVE
This article is to calculate corrected Iran cancer incidence by a novel method to compensate under-ascertainment of cancer cases in the very elderly (aged 65+).


METHODS
Corrected age-specific rate for a certain cancer in age group 65+ was calculated from the age-specific rate of that cancer in age group 55-64 multiplied by the corresponding coefficient from reference cancer registry (sex- and age-specific coefficients from Finnish Cancer Registry, a nation-wide registry with high validity of data). All cancer data were obtained from GLOBOCAN 2002.


RESULTS
The crude rate (and number of new cases) for "All sites excluding skin" was 13.6% (men 18.7%; women 8.1%) under-estimated. The under-enumeration was 18.9% for the age-standardized rate (men 25.4%; women 11.8%). This means there were 58,000 new cancer cases (about 7,000 more than original) in 2002. Corrected incidence for the year 2050 was 26.1% higher (men 32.8%; women 17.3%) than the original estimate (49,000 more). Depending on cancer site and sex, percentage under-estimation varied remarkably.


CONCLUSIONS
After correction, the estimates of number of new cases and incidence rates of Iran increase substantially. Without correction, cancer occurrence measures can be remarkably under-estimated which may lead to inadequate resource allocation for control measures.
Fallah
Mahdi
M
Tampere School of Public Health, FIN-33014, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. Mahd.Fallah@gmail.com
Kharazmi
Elham
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*