The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: to identify the common types of tobacco related cancer in Yemen 2003 and compare cancer incidence in Yemen with the regional countries.

Methods: Reported cancer cases at three cancer registries (Sana'a, Aden and Hadhramout Alwadi) were analyzed for the year 2003 (using CanReg4 programme) for their age distribution, sex, incidence rate. The incidence was calculated based on the population data set of these areas only.

Results: From the total 1088 new cases were recorded in one year period 537 (49.4%) were males and 551 (50.6%) were female new cases. The overall frequency of cancer reported among male was cancer of digestive system (13.8%), followed by bucal cavity, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Leukemia and cancer of liver (12.2%, 12.0%, 10.1%, and 7.1% respectively). Breast cancer recognized among one fifth of the female reported cancer cases (20.9%) followed by digestive system cancers, female genital system, bucal cavity cancer and Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (13.5%, 12.1%, 9.3% and 8.3% respectively). The overall rate of cancer in Yemen was the lowest compared to other nearby countries either among males or females 26.8 /100.000 population and 29.8/100,000 population respectively.

Conclusions: the incidence of tobacco related cancer among population in Yemen is more peculiar to the community features with use of tobacco is high and associated with sessions of Kat chewing.