An official website of the United States government
NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
Akintola A, Odutola M, Olayinka T, et al., editors. Cancer in Nigeria: 2009 – 2016 [Internet]. Nigeria: Nigerian National System of Cancer Registries; 2021.
Calabar is a port city in southern Nigeria. It is the capital of Cross River State and has often been described as the tourism capital of Nigeria. The State is a coastal state and it shares boundaries with Benue State to the north, Ebonyi and Abia States to the west, Cameroon Republic to the east, Akwa-Ibom and the Atlantic Ocean to the south.
Located in the Niger Delta, Cross River State has an estimated population of 3,104,446 (1,471,967 males and 1,421,021 females) as reported by NPC, 2006 [4]. This accounts for 2.2% of Nigeria’s population.
Calabar is located on coordinates 4°57′0″N 8°19′30″E. It occupies a total landmass 20,156 square kilometres and has a population density of 190 people per square kilometres.
The state is composed of three major ethnic groups. These are the Efik, the Ejagham and the Bekwarra. The Efik language is very widely spoken in Cross River State. The economy of the state relies predominantly on agriculture, oil and tourism. Solid minerals found in commercial quantities in the state are uranium, iron ore, manganese, tourmaline, barites and marbles.
The Calabar Cancer Registry (CCR) is a Population Based Cancer Registry located within the Pathology Department of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar. The registry began in 1983 as a Hospital Based Cancer Registry then became Population based in 2005. CCR has presented its data at various local and international conferences.
A Five year Cancer Incidence data from the registry was reported by Ekanem et al [9]. CCR data was also included in the GLOBOCAN 2012 database of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) where data alongside that from the Ibadan Cancer Registry and the Abuja Cancer Registry were collated to derive national cancer incidence for Nigeria in 2012 [6]. The Calabar Cancer registry is a member of the African Cancer Registry Network and the International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR).
The CCR covers Calabar municipality, Calabar-south and Akpabuyo Local Government Areas of Cross Rivers State with an estimated population of 647,000 people according to the National census of 2006 (NPC, 2006).
The pyramid below shows the age and sex distribution of the population covered by the registry.
The Calabar Cancer Registry reported a total 1,151 cases of cancer (ASR = 58.3 per 100,000) in the 8-year period from 2009 to 2016. A total of 460 (40.0%; ASR = 32.7 per 100,000) were reported in females and 691 (60.0%, ASR = 51.1 per 100,000) in males. The average number of cases observed per year during the 8-year period was 931.
The distribution of cases observed during the reporting period from 2009 to 2016 by age group and sex is shown in figure 7.3 below:
Proportion of cancer cases for each age group by sex.
In females, the highest incidence of cancers was in the 30 to 49 years age group (ASR = 690.9 per 100,000; 45.2% of all cancer cases occurring in females) followed by the 50 to 69 years age group (ASR = 281.3 per 100,000; 32.7% of all cancer cases occurring in females). While the highest incident cases of cancers among males occurred within the age 50 to 69 years age group (ASR = 737.1 per 100,000; 40.2% of all cancer cases occurring in males) followed by the 70+ years age group (ASR = 496.7 per 100,000; 20.0% of all cancer cases occurring in males).
Figure 7.4 shows the number of incident cancer cases reported per year by the registry.
Incident Cancer Cases by year, 2009 to 2016.
For both sexes, the Age-Standardized Incidence Rate (ASR) from ages 0 to 85+ years within the study period 2009 to 2016 was 58.3 per 100,000. The most common incident cancer in females was breast cancer (ASR = 19.2 per 100,000; 271 cases) followed by cancer of the cervix (ASR = 11.7 per 100,000; 126 cases) as shown in figure 7.5. Together, these two cancers account for 57.5 % of all cancers occurring in females in the area covered by the Calabar Cancer Registry.
Top 10 Cancer sites in Females, 2009 to 2016.
Figure 7.6 shows the Age-Standardized Incidence Rate (ASR) for cancers in males from ages 0 to 85+ years. The most common incident cancer by far was prostate cancer (ASR = 17.6 per 100,000; 188 cases) which singularly accounts for 41.0% of all cancers occurring in males in the area covered by the Calabar Cancer Registry.
Top 10 Cancer sites in Males, 2009 to 2016.
Table 7.1 shows the incident cancer cases by age group among females from ages 0 to 85+ years within the 8-year period, while Table 7.2 shows the incident cancer cases by age group among males from ages 0 to 85+ years within the 8-year period.
Number of cancer cases by age group among females in Calabar Cancer registry, 2009 to 2016.
Number of cancer cases by age group among males in Calabar Cancer registry, 2009 to 2016.
Table 7.3 shows the crude and age standardized (ASR) incidence rates per 100,000, as well as the cumulative rate (%) of the female cancers reported by the Calabar Cancer Registry from 2009 to 2016 and their distribution by age groups. The highest cumulative incidence was for breast cancer, followed by cancer of the cervix.
Cancer Incidence in Calabar, 2009 to 2016 – Females.
Table 7.4 shows the crude and age standardised (ASR) incidence rates per 100,000, as well as the cumulative rate (%) of the male cancers reported by the Calabar Cancer Registry from 2009 to 2016 and their distribution by age groups. The highest cumulative incidence was for prostate cancer followed by lymphoma.
Cancer Incidence in Calabar, 2009 to 2016 – Males.
The figure below shows the age specific rates for the top 5 cancers in females (Figure 7.7). The incidence of the commonest cancer, which is breast cancer starts to increase from 15 to 19 years of age and peaks at 55 to 59 years and starts to fall from 75 to 79 years of age. While the incidence for cervical cancer, the second commonest cancer starts to increase from 25 to 29 years of age and peaks at the age group 65 to 69, then falls from 80 to 84 years of age.
Age specific incidence rates of the commonest cancers in females, 2009 to 2016.
Figure 7.8 shows the age specific cancer incidence for males. The incidence of prostate cancer rises steadily from 40 to 44 years of age and plateaus at 75 to 79 years.
Age specific incidence rates of the commonest cancers in males, 2009 to 2016.
The most common basis of diagnosis in Calabar Cancer Registry was the histology of the primary tumor (60.8%), followed by clinical diagnosis 18.2%.
There was fluctuation in the annual number of cases documented by the registry primarily due to challenges with funding.
Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Users are allowed to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially), as long as the authors and the publisher are explicitly identified and properly acknowledged as the original source.
Your browsing activity is empty.
Activity recording is turned off.
See more...
