In 2000, 56,250 deaths occurred in Turkey due to the
cancer with a share of 13.1%. It is estimated that cancercaused
deaths would rise to 14% in 2010, 15.2% in 2020
and 16.2% in 2030 [
3].
On the other hand, hospitalization due to cancer in
Turkey has increased two times at the last ten years. The
fact that population in Turkey has also increased 15% in
this period indicates that cancer has a gradually increasing
share in hospitalization [9].
As for the year 2001, cancer incidence in our country
was 60.5/100,000 and turns out to be 95.1/100,000
when standardized according to the European population. Based on the Cancer Control Department data, Turkey
is a country with the lowest cancer incidence among EU
Member States though being a country with cancer incidence
higher than that of Tajikistan, which is one of the
WHO Regions for Europe countries (Table 2). This situation
indicates that Turkey has a young population and
cancer data in Turkey is still not collected appropriately as
desired since cancer incidence is still low when standardized
according to the European population.
Cancer incidence in Turkey, which was 19.7/100,000
in 1983 increased to 60.5/100,000 in 2001. The increase
noted is outstanding particularly in the Aegean Region
(Table 1). While cancer incidence in the Aegean Region was high when compared to the whole country, cancer
incidence in the Black Sea and Southeastern Anatolia Region
was lower. The fact that more cases of cancer are
reported in the Aegean Region might be due to the importance
given to the collection of cancer data. Comparison
of cancer data among different regions, however, might
lead to mistakes because the quality of data collection
is not the same in all regions across Turkey. To give an
example, cancer data in İzmir is collected with an active
system while it is collected in many other regions based
on physicians’ diagnosis through a passive system.
In many cancer types, increase is possible in the incidence
in parallel with aging. Age groups in regions might
be different from each other, thus, comparisons that ignore
age groups might be mistaken. Cancer incidence data
in different population groups should be compared based
on the age groups. So, Turkey, with its young population,
would be available for comparison within the regions and
other countries regarding cancer mortality rate.
Cancer mortality rate in the Black Sea Region was
101/100,000, which is higher when compared to Turkey
(Table 4). The fact that cancer mortality rate in the Black
Sea Region is higher than other regions might be due to the fact that the population is old-aged. For instance, share of
the population of 60+ in Turkey was 8.4% in 2000 while it
was 11.4% in the Black Sea Region. Cancer mortality rate
in the North is 81/100,000 when standardized according
to the age groups within Turkish population.
In another study conducted in Turkey, the age-standardized
cancer mortality rate in 2003 was found to be
99.97/100,000 among male and 46.81/100,000 among
female [10].
As for the year 2000 standardized cancer mortality
rate in Turkish population was found to be 147.2/100,000
(Table 4); 189.5/100,000 in the EU Member States;
268.2/100,000 in Hungary and 70.8/100,000 in Tajikistan
(Table 5). When cancer mortality rate in Turkey is standardized
it gets closer to the EU countries.
The fact that cancer mortality rate is close to that in
the EU Member States although the cancer incidence in
Turkey is almost ¼ of the EU indicates that the NBD-CE
Study results are acceptable.
In many countries, cancer incidence is about two times
the cancer mortality rate whereas it is two/ third of cancer
mortality rate in our country.
As seen obviously, cancer incidence and cancer mortality
rate in Turkey is below the European average. Turkish
cancer incidence data obtained from NBD-CE Study
is relatively higher when compared to data obtained from
the Cancer Control Department’s data which indicates that
cancer registry system does not function well in Turkey.
Statistical data on cancer in Turkey is far from being
in-depth and detailed to present the case and status of cancer
in Turkish population not only because communitybased
registration system is not available for now but also
the existing system being insufficient. Data collected by
Turkish MoH is far from giving tips about accurate cancer
incidence since reporting from different public agencies
to the MoH is not satisfactory due to the insufficient number
of the relevant personnel.
A country-wide increase is noticed in the number of
cancer cases in general. However, it should be kept in
mind that this increase might be due to the improving facilities
of diagnosis and treatment, access to health care
services and rising consciousness of well-being. So, community-
based registry systems of the world-wide cancer
registry systems quality should be developed in Turkey in
order to obtain concrete, clear and unquestionable data on
cancer and to find out the actual scope of the problem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We extend our most sincere thanks to the Cancer Control
Department of MoH for their invaluable assistance to
provide the required data for us.
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