Cancer at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh

ABSTRACT

This study is based on data collected from a total of 1196 patients [725 males and 471 females] with histologically confirmed cancer seen in King Khalid University Hospital over a 5-year period between September 1985 to August 1990. Four hundred forty-five patients were non-Saudi [37.20%]. The relative frequency and rank of order are determined for various cancers in Saudi patients and total group and compared with the results of the other published studies on cancer epidemiology in Saudi Arabia. The most common cancers among Saudi males were liver, non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, stomach, lung, central nervous system, prostate, lymphoid leukemias, myeloid leukemias, urinary bladder and Hodgkin's disease. The most common cancers among Saudi females were breast, thyroid, non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, central nervous system, stomach, myeloid leukemias, esophagus, lymphoid leukemias, liver and ovary. Rank order and relative frequency for liver cancer in both sexes is the highest among any study previously published on the epidemiology of cancer in Saudi Arabia