Incidence and time trends of cancer in Cyprus over 11 years (1998-2008)

Cyprus maintains a population-based cancer registry that allows for in-depth study of cancer in a culturally- and environmentally-unique setting. Using eleven years of collected data (1998-2008), we present the first comprehensive analysis of cancer in Cyprus. We calculated gender-specific, world age-adjusted incidence rates and time trends for the 26 most incident cancers. This study revealed that overall world age-standardized rates among males increased from 195.4 cases per 100,000 in 1998-2002 to 239.0 cases per 100,000 in 2006-2008. For the entire eleven-year period, prostate, lung, colorectal, and bladder cancers were the most incident cancers among males. Among females, the overall world age-standardized rate increased from 180.6 cases per 100,000 in 1998-2002 to 217.1 cases per 100,000 in 2006-2008. Over the entire period, breast, colorectal, uterine, and thyroid were the most incident cancers in females. There were sixteen sex-specific cancers that indicated statistically significant increasing incidence trends over the study period, and no types for which the rate was significantly decreasing. Thyroid cancer illustrated rapid increases in rates. Results were compared to other Mediterranean European registries reported in Cancer Incidence in 5 Continents report for 1997-2002. Overall cancer incidence in Cyprus is lower than that of Southern Mediterranean countries, and given the known environmental risk factors in Cyprus, the low rate of lung cancer is especially interesting. The epidemiologic patterns reported in this study open the door for future etiologic studies to elucidate role of environmental and lifestyle factors of cancer in this population and highlight opportunities for cancer prevention and control.