Abstract
Regional cancer epidemiology is an important basis for determining the priorities for cancer control in different countries worldwide. There is no reliable information about the pattern of head and neck cancer in western Nepal and hence an attempt was here made to evaluate the situation based on hospital data, which provide the only source in the western region of Nepal. A clinicopathological analysis of head and neck cancers treated between 2003 and 2006 in Manipal Teaching Hospital affiliated to Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara, Western Development Region, Nepal was performed. A total of 105 head and neck cancer cases were identified with a male to female ratio of 1.8:1. The median ages of male and female patients were 62 and 64 years, respectively. Ninety-seven (92.4%) of the cancer patients were suffering from carcinoma, three (2.9%) had blastoma, three (2.9%) had sarcoma, and two (1.9%) had lymphoma. The majority (61.9%) of carcinoma cases were squamous cell carcinoma followed by anaplastic carcinoma (7.2%). Of the carcinoma cases, the most common site of primary lesion was larynx (19.6%), followed by the thyroid (14.4%), the tongue and hypopharynx with 10.3% cases each. Comparative analysis among males and females did not reveal any sex difference in type of head and neck cancers. The head and neck cancer pattern revealed by the present study provides valuable leads to cancer epidemiology in western Nepal and useful information for health planning and cancer control, and future research in western Nepal.
Highlights
Population based cancer registries reflect data based on unselected patients with a wide range of natural histories and different management patterns (Jamal et al, 2006)
There is no reliable information about the pattern of head and neck cancer in western Nepal and an attempt was here made to evaluate the situation based on hospital data, which provide the only source in the western region of Nepal
The head and neck cancer pattern revealed by the present study provides valuable leads to cancer epidemiology in western Nepal and useful information for health planning and cancer control, and future research in western Nepal
Summary
Population based cancer registries reflect data based on unselected patients with a wide range of natural histories and different management patterns (Jamal et al, 2006). The incidence of different cancers is derived from population based statistics (Jamal et al., 2006). In most developing countries like Nepal such comprehensive data may not be available (Binu et al, 2007). Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries in the south-east Asia region. In 2002, Nepal was ranked 140 among 174 countries in the Human Development Index and 0.44 in the gross domestic product (GDP). According to the 2001 census, the total population of Nepal is 23.15 million. Nepal is geographically divided into five development regions.
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