Gastric and colo-rectal cancer mortality in Viet Nam in the years 2005-2006.
BACKGROUND
The International Collaborative Epidemiological Study of Host and Environmental Factors for Stomach and Colorectal Cancers in Southeast Asian Countries (SEACs) has been conducted in Viet Nam from 2003 to 2008 on a case-control basis. For further effective primary prevention, we examined gastric and colorectal cancer mortality nationwide in eight regions of Viet Nam in 2005-06.


METHODS
Both demographic data and lists of all deaths in 2005-06 were obtained from all 10,769 commune health stations in Viet Nam. Five indicators included name, age, sex, date of death and cause of death was collected for each case. We selected only communes having the list of deaths with clear cause for each case and crude mortality rate for all causes from 300-600/100,000 as published by the Ministry of Health for a reasonable accuracy and completeness. Obtained data for all causes, all cancers, stomach and colorectal cancer deaths as well as demographic information were processed using Excel software and exported to STATA 8.0 for estimation of world age-standardized cancer mortality rates per 100,000.


RESULTS
Data were available for 1,246 gastric cases, (819 male and 427 female) with age-standardized mortality rates from 12.7 to 31.3 per 100,000 in males and from 5.9 to 10.3 per 100,000 in females in the 8 regions of the country. For colorectal cancers, 542 cases (268 male and 274 female) gave mortality rates from 4.0 to 11.3 per 100,000 in males and from 3.0 to 7.8 per 100,000 in females.


CONCLUSIONS
Stomach cancer mortality in males in the region of North East in the North Viet Nam (2005-06) was higher than that in Japan (2002) (31.3 versus 28.7 per 100,000) while colorectal cancer in Viet Nam was lower. While prevalence of Helicobacter pyloris infection in Viet Nam was from 70-75% in both males and females, the stomach cancer rate in males was significantly higher than in females, 31.3 versus 6.8 per 100,000, suggesting an influence of other environmental risk factors. Whether protective factors are operating against colorectal cancer in Viet Nam now needs to be explored.
Ngoan
Le Tran
le T
Dept. of Occupational Health, Hanoi Medical University, Ton That Tung Street, Hanoi, Viet Nam. letngoan@hmu.edu.vn
Anh
Nguyen Thi Diep
NT
Huong
Nguyen Thi Thanh
NT
Thu
Nguyen Thi
NT
Lua
Nguyen Thi
NT
Hang
Lai Thi Minh
LT
Bich
Nguyen Ngoc
NN
Hieu
Nguyen Van
NV
Quyet
Ha Van
HV
Tai
Le Thi
le T
Van
Do Duc
do D
Khan
Nguyen Cong
NC
Mai
Le Bach
le B
Tokudome
Shinkan
S
Yoshimura
Takesumi
T
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002423:Cause of Death; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D015996:Survival Rate; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology