TEHRAN – Over the past decade, the rate of mortality as a result of cancer has been declining in Iran, a senior advisor to the Iranian health minister has said.

A study conducted over the past ten years on 840,000 patients suffering from cancer in the country shows that the rate of mortality has decreased, Mohammad Esmaeil Akbari told IRNA on Wednesday.

Fortunately, the quality of cancer care in Iran is high and is comparable with other countries in the world, he stressed.

In August, Ali Qanbari-Motlaq, head of the Health Ministry’s cancer control department, said a total of 75 centers for early cancer detection were established across the country during the past Iranian calendar year (March 2018-March 2019).

The Health Ministry plans to increase the operating early cancer detection centers to 137 as soon as possible, he added, ISNA reported.

Cancer, the third cause of death in Iran

Qanbari-Motlaq noted that after road accidents and cardiovascular diseases, cancer has been the third leading cause of death among Iranians during recent years.

The rate of cancer in Iran is 149.74 per 100,000 population (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) which is less than the global rate of 182 in 100,000 population, he added.

According to the latest data released by the Health Ministry in early June, a total of 108,798 new cases of cancer were diagnosed during the calendar year 1394 (March 2015-March 2016) in Iran, of which 58,092 ones (53.4 percent) were men and 50,706 (46.6 percent) were women.

There were 112,000 cancer patients in the year 1393, including 60,432 (53.9 percent) men and 51,628 (46.1 percent) women. According to the statistics, 149.74 per 100,000 population suffer from cancer, including 156.95 men and 134.43 women per 100,000 population.

Breast cancer (32.9 percent), prostate cancer (16.93 percent), nonmelanoma skin cancer (14.6 percent), gastric cancer (13.70 percent) and colorectal cancer (13.31 percent) are the most common cancers in the country.

MG