Muscat – Cancer is the third leading cause of death in hospitals in Oman, while breast cancer is the most common kind of cancer and thyroid cancer ranked second among all cancers.

The Ministry of Health, represented by the National Cancer Registry at the Department of Non-Communicable Diseases in the Directorate General of Primary Health Care, released the latest cancer statistics of the sultanate (2019) on Sunday. The total number of diagnosed cases was 2,307 (nationals and residents).

The number of Omani patients diagnosed with cancer in 2019 was 2,089; 218 residents were also diagnosed with cancer in this period.

‘Cancer was the third leading cause of death in hospitals, after respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases being the first,’ MoH report said. Cancer incidence rate among Omani women – 1,158 or 55.43 per cent – was higher than men – 931. Cancer was also reported in 124 children under 14 years of age.

‘It is worth noting that the average age at diagnosis was 54 years – 60 years among men, compared to 50 years for women.’

The data also showed that crude incidence rate among Omanis was 69.6 per 100,000 males and 87.9 per 100,000 females.

Globally, 18,094,716 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2020. The age-standardised rate for all cancers (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) for men and women combined was 190 per 100,000 in 2020. The rate was higher for men (206.9 per 100,000) than women (178.1 per 100,000).

In Oman, breast cancer still ranked first among all cancers in general and among women in particular, as the number of cases reached 350; 31 per cent were diagnosed in the third and fourth stages.

The National Cancer Registry began recording cancer cases first as a hospital-based registry in 1985 and then as a population-based registry since 1996. The registry collects and records data on cancer patients from various data sources throughout Oman.

The National Cancer Registry issues an annual report containing the most important data collected, in line with international standards, including those of the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It cooperates with local, regional and international associations and organisations concerned with cancer registration.

The National Cancer Registry is important owing to its database that is used as a reference for research and educational purposes by researchers and decision-makers.