Cancer epidemiology and control in North-Western and Central Asia - past, present and future.

The North-Western and Central region of Asia stretches from Turkey through Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, to Iran and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan and Afghanistan. These countries in the main share Turkic, Iranian or Caucasus ethnicity and culture and can be considered as a regional entity for cooperation in control of cancer. The present review of cancer registry and other epidemiological data was undertaken to provide an evidence base for cancer control programs and pointers to possible research collaboration.

Chronic disease prevention research in Central Asia, the Urals, Siberia and Mongolia - past, present and future.

Central Asia, the Urals, Siberia and Mongolia cover an immense section of Asia and although relatively sparsely populated the total inhabitants number well in excess of 100 million. Furthermore, there is an increasing tendency for urbanization of the populations, which in many cases are growing. The ethnic make-up is diverse, with various degrees of admixture of Russians to the Turkish, Mongolian and other indigenous peoples of the region, and there is evidence of major variation in the burden of different cancers among the groups, although oesophageal and gastric neoplasias are relatively prevalent in common.

Epidemiology of Esophagus, Lung and Breast Cancer in Mountainous Regions of Kyrgyz Republic.

Relative incidences of esophagus, lung and breast cancers differ in the various populations in Kyrgyzstan. Esophagus cancer is the most commonly observed among the Turkic groups, especially in Kazakhs, while lung and breast cancer are frequently encountered among the European representatives of the population - Russians in particular. Fluctuation in rates for these cancer forms in the Kyrgyzstan mountain regions is highly dependable on the height above sea level.

Dynamics of the Incidence Rates for Separate Forms of Cancer in the Female Population of Kyrgyzstan.

The purpose of the present research was to estimate trends of change in cancer morbidity for the breast, uterine corpus, cervix uterus, and ovaries of the female population of Kyrgyzstan as a whole and in separate regions over a 10 year period (1989-1998). This retrospective study, applying descriptive and analytical methods of modern oncoepidemiology, established that breast cancer occupies the first place, neoplasia of the cervix uterus the second, of the ovaries the third and the uterine corpus the fourth, within the range of malignant neoplasms of the female reproductive system. On the whole the indicated cancer incidence rates tend to growth in dynamics and different regional specificities.