Trends of Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates in Songkhla Population, 1998-2009

Abstract

Cancer is an important health problem in Thailand and trends are increasing. A good quality population-based cancer registry is a valuable resource for monitoring and evaluating goals, which can be broadly categorized and assisting in planning and providing a data resource for epidemiological studies of cancer causations. The objective of this retrospective descriptive research was to present an update on the trends in cancer incidence and cancer mortality of Songkhla population for 12 years between 1998 and 2009. In addition the registry also indicated the type of cancer problem in the future in Songkhla area, particularly liver cancer, followed by prostate cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer respectively which obviously increased more than 1.5 times in 12 years. Cancer mortality in males also showed an upward trend and similar to cancer incidence trends in males, while cancer mortality trends in females slowly increased.