Pattern of malignant tumours in King Fahad Hospital, Al Baha, Saudi Arabia

The study makes a first attempt to evaluate the pattern of malignancy for the Baha region with the aid of all available histological and cytological biopsies for the period November 1981 to March 1987. Of 22021 histological and cytological specimens 659 [3%] were malignant. Ill-defined locations, metastases and repeat biopsies accounted for 75 biopsies [11%]. A low incidence of malignancies were found in the Baha region with the biopsy technique. The ten most common cancer types for men were: skin, gastric, lymphoma, leukaemia, urinary bladder, liver, colon, oral, prostate and lung-pleura in that order. For females the rank order was: skin, gastric, leukaemia, breast, lymphoma, thyroid, colon, ovary, urinary bladder and liver