title: Blood malignancies in Mazandaran province of Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Leukemia and lymphoma demonstrate significantly incidence rates throughout the world and particularly in Iran they cause serious mortality and diagnosis and treatment expenditures for both families and the health system. Combined they account for about 11 percent of cancers in Mazandaran province, ranking number 2 in prevalent cancers. The purpose of this study was to provide a first general and specific description of leukemia and lymphoma in Mazandaran province.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this descriptive retrospective study, entire patient's data were reviewed which had confirmed diagnosis of leukemia and lymphoma with valid laboratory or pathology reports in the period 2001-2008. The data were collected by Babol health research site related to Tehran University of Medical Science. Incidence rates based on age groups, gender, city of residence and type of malignancy were calculated and analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In Mazandaran province, 1,146 cases of leukemia and lymphoma were encountered, 5.9 in 100,000 persons on average annually. The highest incidence rates were obtained at age of 70 or above (26.4) and the lowest at age of 0-9 (2.3).The incidence rates in males and females were 7.1 and 4.8 respectively with a ratio of 1.5. The highest incidence rate was in Babol (7.3) and the lowest was calculated in Neka and Tonekabon equally (1.5). According to the type of malignancy, non Hodgkin lymphoma, with 2.5/100,000 have the most incidence rate and myeloid leukemia with 1.8 had the lowest.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The obtained findings indicate clear differences in incidence rates based on age, gender, residence, and type of malignancy. Therefore it's suggested that in addition to promote data collecting programs, research projects should be programmed to define leukemia and lymphoma risk factors in this province.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Bahram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tahmasby
authors.forename: Ahmad Barati
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Marnani
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maleki
authors.forename: Mohsen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barouni
authors.forename: Seyyed Hamid
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Mousavi
authors.forename: Behjat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Naseriyan
authors.forename: Mirzaali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nazarnezhad
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alizadeh
authors.forename: Asma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sabermahani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D007938:Leukemia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult