Oman's MoH launches 20-year Cancer Incidence Report

Muscat: Cancer cases among Omanis have crossed 21,000, according to a report released by Oman's Ministry of Health (MoH).

The report showed that the mostly-lethal disease affected around 51.1 per cent males while women accounted for 48.9 per cent of the total cases in Oman.

Officials from the Health Ministry added that annually 125.7 per 100,000 people in the Sultanate reported to have been afflicted by the disease.

The MoH — represented by the Department of Non-Communicable Diseases — launched the 20-Year Cancer Incidence in Oman Report (1996 - 2015), under the patronage of Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Saidi, minister of Health in the presence of Dr Ahmed bin Salim Al-Mandhri, regional director of World Health Organisation for East Mediterranean on Wednesday, 30 October 2019.

The Department of Non-Communicable Diseases, which was represented by the National Cancer Record, launched reports of the cancer incidence rates in the Sultanate since 1996.

The report reveals the number of new cancer cases, types and the affected and their distribution across the Sultanate according to the gender, geographical distribution, the most common kinds of cancer and the number and types of cancer among non-Omanis.
This report is the first-of-its-kind in the Sultanate indicating the total number of recorded cases and the overall rate of cancer incidence among Omanis over the last 20 years.

The report contains five chapters where chapter one is an overview of the National Cancer Record and a comparison of cancer status between 1996 to 2015.

Chapter two shows the cancer cases and their rates among the Omani males and females during 1996 - 2015, while the third chapter highlights the five most common cancers among Omanis (both males & females).

The fourth & fifth chapters indicate the distribution of cancer incidence according to governorates over 1996 to 2005 and 2006 to 2015, as well as the five most common cancers in governorates.

The report classified the five most common cancer types among Omanis (in both males & females): breast cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, leukaemia, colorectal cancer and thyroid cancer respectively.

The report categorised cancer types among males from 1996 to 2015, in which it highlighted that prostate gland cancer was the most common type among males which was followed by stomach cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, leukaemia, colorectal cancer respectively.

For the females, during the same period, the report highlighted that breast cancer ranked first place followed by the thyroid cancer, colorectal cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and leukaemia at the fifth rank.

It is worth mentioning that tobacco use, physical inactivity and unhealthy food are key risk factors that often lead to cancer.