[Frequency of cancer in a specialty hospital in Mexico City. Implications for the development of early detection methods].

Background: Cancer is the second cause of death in Mexico. The Juarez Hospital of Mexico is a highly specialized general hospital in which the frequency of cancer treated at the Oncology Unit is a representative sample of the frequency of cancer in the country.

Objective: To learn about the frequency of presentation of tumors diagnosed in a third level hospital.

Methods: We reviewed all the biopsies and surgical specimens diagnosed as cancer or malignant tumors registered in the pathology unit during the years 2006 to 2010. We grouped the cases by age, sex, and anatomic site.

Results: We identified the 10 most common cancers for both sexes, age groups and sex affected, raising the chances of early detection campaigns reinforce for the most common cancers and try to increase control and cure rates and improve coverage of the economically weak, for their integration into health systems.

Conclusions: Information obtained reflects the reality of the country to the general population without entitlements. That in our country women suffer more than men of cancer that breast neoplasms and genital tract are the most frequent, and timely detection systems exist and should be strengthened to achieve greater eligible for early identification of cases in our population.