Introduction                                           

The computerised Cancer Registry at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC) is a data system designed for the collection, management, and analysis of detailed data on patients registered at the Hospital. The Cancer Registry at the Hospital has been functioning since the inauguration of the Hospital in December 1994. Every year, the Registry generates cancer statistics according to sex, age, demographic area, topography, morphology, stage, grade etc. From December 1994 till December 2003, the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, was used to code the diseases. On January 2004, the Registry implemented the International Classification of Disease for Oncology, Third Edition (ICD-O-3) to code cancer cases.

Results

During the last seventeen years, a total of 53,382 neoplasms were registered at SKMCH&RC (of which 2,173 were benign and 51,006 malignant). The distributions seen amongst males and females were (49.25% and 50.75%, respectively). About 88.92% tumours were found in adults whereas 11.08% were diagnosed in children. The top three malignancies in all age groups and both sexes combined were breast cancer, leukaemia, and lip and oral cavity cancer. The top three malignancies amongst adult females were cancers of the breast, ovary and uterine adnexa, and lip and oral cavity, whereas, in adult males, they were liver and intrahepatic bile ducts, lip and oral cavity and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In adults, regardless of gender, malignant neoplasm of the breast, lip and oral cavity, and liver and intrahepatic bile ducts, were established as the leading malignancies, whereas, in children, the commonest malignancies were categorised as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), Hodgkin’s disease, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).

In the year 2011, a total of 4,537 malignancies were added to the Registry database. Of a total of 4,537 malignant cases, 4,068 (89.66%) were analytical cases, whereas 469 (10.34%) were non-analytical cases (Class of case 0 to 2 and 3 to 9 are considered analytical cases and non-analytical cases respectively according to the Facility Oncology Revised Data Standards (FORDS) Revised for 2004). The top three malignancies in all age groups and both sexes combined were breast, liver and intrahepatic bile ducts, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In adult males, prostate, liver and intrahepatic bile ducts, colorectal and lip and oral cavity were the top malignancies whereas in adult females, breast, ovary and uterine adnexa, lip and oral cavity and colorectal were the leading malignancies. In children, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were the commonest malignancies.

The Registry uses the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC 7th edition) staging manual for staging all available cancer sites. TNM categorises cancers in stages 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and also as unstageable. Amongst 3,824 analytical cases (Class of case 0, 1, 2) , 0.59% cases were staged into stage 0, 13.59% in stage I, 25.67% in stage II, 22.37% in stage III, and 19.69% in stage IV. In 7.77% of the patients, no AJCC stage was defined and 10.32% of the cases were unstageable.

In histological grading, 7.23% presented in Grade I, 24.34% in Grade II, 24.78% in Grade III, 1.23% in Grade IV, and in 42.42% Grade was not determined.

The details of these reports/documents can be viewed by using the following links:

Collective Cancer Registry Report (1994-2011) (PDF file)
Annual Cancer Registry Report (2011) (PDF file)
CRCDM – Confidentiality - June,  2011 (PDF file)

Archived Cancer Registry Reports

• Year 2010
• Year 2009
• Year 2008
• Year 2007 
• Year 2006 
• Year 2005 
• Year 2004