title: Epidemiology of esophageal cancer in ardabil province during 2003-2011.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this research was to perform an epidemiologic survey of esophageal cancer in Ardabil province.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 661 patients diagnosed with EC were studied from March 2002 to May 2011 e. The necessary data were collected with a checklist from the documents in Ardabil Cancer Registry (ACR) and analyzed by statistical methods with SPSS.18 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the total new cases of EC registered in ARC during study period, 430 (65.1%) of patients were male with the male to female standard ratio was 1.18, with a statistically significant gender bias. The most common morphology of EC was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC, 68.8%) followed by adenocarcinoma (28.5%). It was observed that in most of patients, EC lesions were in the middle third of esophagus. In addition, most patients were rural and about 40% had smoking habits. The age-standardized incidence rate of cancers was 48.4 per 100,000 among females and males. The annual incidence rates in males and females was 7.1 and 6.7 per 100,000; respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results showed that the prevalence and annual incidence rate of cancer in Ardabil province is lower than other areas of the country with a male predominance and a relatively high proprortion of adenocarcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Ardabil University of Medical Science, Ardabil, Iran. s.sadeghiyeh @arums.ac.ir
authors.forename: Firouz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Amani
authors.forename: Saeid Sadeghieh
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Ahari
authors.forename: Lyla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Akhghari
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D013997:Time Factors