Over 30,000 New Cases Of Cancer Annually In Algeria

ALGIERS, April 17 -- More than 30, 000 new cases of cancer are recorded nationwide every year according to the data of tumour register in Pierre & Marie Curie anti-cancer centre (CPMC), unveiled Professor Doudja Hamouda from the Public Health Institute in El Biar here.

Quoting Hamouda, who was speaking on the occasion of the first days on radiotherapy held at the military hospital of Ain Naadja, Algerian news agency (APS) said that the tumour registry data of CPMC for the period 1993-2007 reported nearly 50.3 percent of cases among women and nearly 49.7 percent of cases among men.

The rate of disease is 83.4 percent per 100,000 population for males and 85.9 per 100 000 population among women, she said.

For women, breast cancer ranks first with 4,541 cases (29 percent) in 2007 followed by cancer of the cervix with 1,612 cases (10.5 percent) of colorectal cancer with 1,882 cases (7.1 percent) and then of thyroid cancer with 737 cases (4.8 percent).

As for men, lung cancer comes in first position with 1,681 cases (12.3 percent), colorectal cancer with 1,180 (8.6 percent), prostate cancer with 1,169 (8.5 percent), skin cancer with 1,005 cases (7.3 percent) and cancer of the digestive tract with 942 cases (6.9 percent).

Up to 8,706 cases of cancer in early stages were identified in 2007 in both sexes, 6,093 cases in the second stage and 4,202 cases in the third stage, the same source added.

For children, 1,267 cases were recorded during the same year with 748 boys (59 percent) and 519 females (41 percent) or some 23 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the first category and some 16 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the second category, since leukemia is a top cancers in children.

CPMC register indicates that for this therapy is that 12,376 patients have undergone surgery the same year, 2,031 in the centre and 1,543 indicated in the private sector.

Some 9,712 patients have undergone treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the public sector.

According to estimates by the CPMC, the number of cancer is known to increase in Algeria in 2012 to more than 34,000 cases per year.

Experts attribute this increase to several factors including the change of diet, environmental pollution and increasing life expectancy.

-- BERNAMA