Cancer registration in the Middle East.

This project signals an advance in cancer registration in the Middle East region. While it is too early to declare a major breakthrough, significant strides have been made toward establishing a basis for reliable information on the cancer burden at a population level and future collaborative efforts in cancer epidemiologic research and prevention.

Characteristics of cancer patients under the age of 20 at medical centers in Israel and the West Bank: a preliminary study.

This paper describes the demographic experience on 373 young cancer patients (less than 20 years of age) at two oncology centers initiated in Israel by one medical team in 1975-1977. These units are the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center (AHMC), which predominantly serves a Jewish population (103 cases); and the West Bank Cancer Unit (WBCU), which provides similar care services to the Arab population of the West Bank (270 cases). The two centers have the unique feature of serving two populations residing in close relationship but still differing in many cultural and socioeconomic characteristics. The Arab patients at WBCU tended to be younger than the Jewish children at AHMC. The five most common diagnostic sites for both AHMC and WBCU included hematopoietic system, bones and joints, soft tissue, urinary tract, and brain and nervous system, although not in the same order of occurrence. These tumor sites accounted for approximately 80% of the cases at each center. The experience with WBCU patients was also compared with data for all Jews in Israel. This comparison identified for both sexes combined statistically significant differences in relative frequency of tumors of soft tissue, eye and orbit, brain and nervous system, and thyroid gland. If confirmed by additional data, reasons for the suggested excess risks should be pursued through more definitive epidemiological studies.

Cancer patterns at medical centers in Israel and the West Bank.

This paper describes the oncological experience on 7,216 patients at two cancer units initiated by one medical team in 1975-1977 at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Israel (predominantly serving a Jewish population, 4,671 cases) and at the West Bank Cancer Unit (WBCU), which serves an Arab population (2,545 cases). The two centers have the unique feature of serving two populations residing in close geographic proximity but differing in many cultural and socioeconomic characteristics. Data from the ongoing cancer registries in these two centers are summarized and compare the demographic characteristics of the two study groups, anatomic sites of cancer, methods of diagnosis and extent of disease. The findings at the two centers suggest the presence of different risk factors influencing the site distributions of cancers seen in the two populations served. Among the findings, significantly higher (p less than 0.05) estimated relative risks for cancers of the digestive and urinary-genital systems are observed in each sex group at AHMC than at WBCU. Alternatively, the estimated risk of head and neck cancers was significantly higher among both males and females at WBCU compared with their counterparts at AHMC. Differences in risk were also noted for a number of specific anatomic sites of cancer.