Cancer incidence in Arkhangelskaja Oblast in northwestern Russia. The Arkhangelsk Cancer Registry.

Background: Data concerning incidence and prevalence of cancer in the different regions of Russia have traditionally not been provided on a basis that facilitated comparison with data from countries in western parts of Europe. The oncological hospital in Arkhangelsk, in co-operation with Universitetet i Tromsø (Norway), has established a population based cancer registry for Arkhangelskaja Oblast (AO). AO is an administrative unit with 1.3 million inhabitants in northwestern Russia. The aim of this investigation was to assess the content and quality of the AO cancer registry (AKR), and to present the site-specific cancer-incidence rates in AO in the period 1993-2001.

Methods: The population in this study consisted of all individuals registered as residents of AO. All new cancer cases in the period 1993-2001, registered the AKR, were included in the study (ICD-10: C00-C95, except for C77-78). The annual gender and age-group-specific population figures were obtained from the AO statistics office.

Results: A total of 34,697 cases of primary cancers were included. The age-adjusted (world standard) incidence rate for all sites combined was 164/100,000 for women and 281/100,000 for men. The highest incidence was for cancer of the trachea, bronchus and lung (16.3% of all cases), whereof 88.6 % of the cases were among men. Among women, cancer of the breast constituted 15.9 percent of all cases. The age-adjusted incidences of the most frequent cancer sites among men were: lung (77.4/100,000); stomach (45.9); rectum (13.4); oesophagus (13.0); colon (12.2); bladder (11.6); and prostate cancer (11.1). Among women they were: breast (28.5); stomach (19.7); colon (12.2); and ovary cancer (9.0).

Conclusion: Our findings confirm and strengthen the indication that the incidences of stomach, larynx, liver, pancreas, prostate, colon, bladder and melanoma cancer are quite different in male populations in Russia compared to many other European countries. Among women, most major cancer types, except stomach, appear to be relatively low in Russian populations. The AKR provides quality data for estimations and insight to the cancer incidence in a northern Russian population, and we consider the reported incidence rates to reflect the cancer situation in AO well.