Abstract
BackgroundThe burden of cancer is difficult to study in the context of the occupied Palestinian territory because of the limited data available. This study aims to evaluate the quality of mortality data and to investigate cancer mortality patterns in the occupied Palestinian territory’s West Bank governorates from 1999 to 2009.MethodsDeath certificates collected by the Palestinian Ministry of Health for Palestinians living in the West Bank were used. Direct and indirect age-standardised mortality rates were computed and used to compare different governorates according to total and specific cancer mortality. Furthermore, standardised proportional mortality ratios were calculated to compare mortality by urban, rural and camp locales.ResultsThe most common cause of death out of all cancer types was lung cancer among males (22.8 %) and breast cancer among females (21.5 %) followed by prostate cancer for males (9.5 %) and by colon cancer for females (11.4 %). Regional variations in cancer-specific causes of death were observed. The central- West Bank governorates had the lowest mortality for most cancer types among men and women. Mortality for lung cancer was highest in the north among men (SMR 109.6; 95%CI 99.5-120.4). For prostate cancer, mortality was highest in the north (SMR 103.6; 95%CI 88.5-120.5) and in the south (SMR 118.6; 95%CI 98.9-141.0). Breast cancer mortality was highest in the south (SMR 119.3; 95%CI 103.9-136.2). Similar mortality rate patterns were found in urban, rural and camp locales.ConclusionThe quality of the Palestinian mortality registry has improved over time. Results in the West Bank governorates present different mortality patterns. The differences might be explained by personal, contextual and environmental factors that need future in-depth investigations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2715-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
The burden of cancer is difficult to study in the context of the occupied Palestinian territory because of the limited data available
The most common type of cancer among Palestinian men is lung cancer followed by prostate and colorectal cancers, while the most common among women is breast cancer followed by colorectal cancer [3, 4]
The gender difference in the crude mortality rate was highest in the central governorates, with 68 per 100,000, and least in the southern governorates, with 49.7 per 100,000
Summary
The burden of cancer is difficult to study in the context of the occupied Palestinian territory because of the limited data available. This study aims to evaluate the quality of mortality data and to investigate cancer mortality patterns in the occupied Palestinian territory’s West Bank governorates from 1999 to 2009. The burden of cancer is increasing worldwide with 12.7 million new cancer cases yearly and 7.6 million cancer deaths occurring in 2008 according to GLOBOCAN series [1]. The cancer burden is increasing rapidly in developing countries due to a variety of reasons. These include the increase in modifiable risk factors (smoking, ingestion of western diets and lack of exercise, environmental pressures) in addition to the increase in cancers of infectious diseases origin. The cancer mortality rate for both the West Bank and Gaza Strip was 27.8 per 100,000. The most common type of cancer among Palestinian men is lung cancer followed by prostate and colorectal cancers, while the most common among women is breast cancer followed by colorectal cancer [3, 4]
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