PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Althubiti, Mohammad A.
AU  - Eldein, Mohamed M. Nour
TI  - Trends in the incidence and mortality of cancer in Saudi Arabia
AID  - 10.15537/smj.2018.12.23348
DP  - 2018 Dec 01
TA  - Saudi Medical Journal
PG  - 1259--1262
VI  - 39
IP  - 12
4099  - http://smj.org.sa/content/39/12/1259.short
4100  - http://smj.org.sa/content/39/12/1259.full
SO  - Saudi Med J2018 Dec 01; 39
AB  - Objectives: To analyze the overall trends in cancer incidence and mortality in Saudi Arabia between 1990 and 2016.Methods: Data were retrieved through a Global Burden of Disease (GBD, 2016) database (Viz Hub) that is developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.Results: The incidence of cancer increased around 26-fold for thyroid cancer; approximately 10-fold in breast, colon, bladder and uterine cancers; 8-fold for prostate cancer; 5-fold for renal cancer; 4-fold for pancreatic and ovarian cancer; 3.5-fold for lung cancer; 3-fold for liver cancer, and 2 folds for lymphoma, leukemia and gastric cancer. There was also an increase in the percentage of mortality due to cancer during this period. However, we noticed that the percentage of deaths due to cancer decreased after 70 years of age in Saudi Arabia population.Conclusion: The increases in the incidence of different types of cancer in the past decade could be due to the revolutionary change in socioeconomic status that has occurred in Saudi Arabia; therefore, a national plan should be established for cancer prevention, screening and therapy. Concerning mortality, the decrease in its percentage among elderly people could be due to biological factors that should be investigated in the future.