A study on the demographic features of cancer patients done in a tertiary care centre in South India

Abstract

Cancer is a major cause of increased morbidity and mortality in today’s world. Several studies have shown that its incidence is governed by the gender and age of a person. The site and histological subtype of cancer vary between different age groups and sex. Knowledge of the demography of cancer in affected individuals will help in planning screening and prevention strategies. The present study was done to analyse the site of different cancers among various age groups and gender in patients coming to a tertiary care centre. Data of cancer patients was retrospectively analysed in terms of age, sex, site, and histopathological subtypes. The histopathological reports of all cases of cancer recorded at the histopathology laboratory of the tertiary care centre during a one year period- November 2017 to October 2018 were perused and the findings were recorded. Analysis of the data was done using SPSS version 17 to obtain the statistical significance. There were a total of 330 cases of cancer recorded during the study period. Out of these, 143 were male and 187 were female. Age group between 51 and 60 years had the maximum number of cases of cancer. Breast cancer in female and stomach cancer and oropharyngeal cancer in male were found to be more common. Among the histological subtypes, adenocarcinoma was found to be the most commonest across all ages and in both sexes.