CANCER, RECENTLY KNOWN AS THE THIRD MORTALITY FACTOR, IS ONE OF THE HEALTH PROBLEMS IN IRAN

Background and This study was intended to record the number of endocrine cancer in four provinces of Iran. Methods and Materials: Patients in each province were classified according to their age, gender, sex, and tumor characteristics (site, morphology and behavior). The obtained data were coded according to ICD-O. High- risk age was calculated for each province and the results presented as incidence rates by sex, age, age- specific rates and ASR per 100,000 person – years using standard statistical methods to the world population. Out of 319 cases of primary endocrine cancers found and recorded, 313 cases were thyroid carcinoma and 6 cases were adrensal cancers. In thyroid carcinoma group, the share of Papillary, follicular, medullary and anaplastic carcinomas accounted for 82.7%, 8.6%, 7.0% and 1.6% respectively. Also, the ASR of thyroid carcinoma for total, male and female cases were 1.289, 0.627 and 1.59 respectively. The highest incidence rate of the thyroid carcinoma was found in Kerman with the ASR of 1.643 for both genders and the lowest rate in Golestan with the ASR of 0.735. Mean age of patients was 43.9 years (SD=15.90) and their age ranged from 3 to 8 years. This figure for males was 45.21 (± 17.13) and for females 43.49 (±15.51) (P= 0.41). Also, the female - male ratio was 3.1 to 1. In adrenal cases (n=6), 4 cases (66.7%) had neuroblastoma and 2 cases were pheochromocytoma (33.3%). The mean diagnosis age was 16.17 (± 7.05) years for the whole population of cases; 13.00 (±3.46) years for males and 19.33 (±9.07) for females (P=0.32) Iran was considered as an endemic iodine-deficient region until fairly recently. However, iodinization of salt started 12 years ago and since then, this increase has caused an increase in the incidence of papillary cancer, compared to other thyroid carcinomas; its frequency and distribution closely correspond to the observed profile in areas with high iodine consumption.