Trends in Incidence and Mortality of Female Cancers Among Sri Lankan Women 1995-2010

Background: Sri Lanka is facing epidemiologic transition from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases in recent decades. Aim: This study analyses the trends in incidence and mortality of all cancers, breast cancer, cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers among Sri Lankan females over 1995-2010. Methods: Cancer incidence was obtained from the published national hospital based cancer registries, Sri Lanka for 1995-2010. Cancer mortality was abstracted from World Health Organization (WHO) database for 1996-2003 and 2006 and Department of Census and Statistics Sri Lanka for 1995 and 2004-2010 where WHO data were not available. Number of new cases and deaths were obtained by five-year age group for all cancers by sex and breast, cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers for females. Particular cancer specific incidence and mortality rates were directly age-standardized to the world population and age standardized rates were calculated for all ages, 20-34, 35-64 and over 64 years. Results: Female, age-stand...