Common Cancers in Northern Thailand

Abstract

Cancer is one of the major public health problems in Thailand. In 2002, cancer became the third common cause of death in the Northern part of Thailand (1). The data sources of this report are from the Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital-based registration. Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital is the university hospital of the Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University. The hospital has 1,800 beds and serves about 415,000 out-patients and 49,200 in-patients each year. A retrospective study was performed using the data from Chiang Mai Cancer registry and Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital records from January 2001 to December 2005. There were 4,108 new cancer cases being treated at the institution. The distribution of patients are (a) 32% from Chiang Mai, (b) 42% from nearby provinces of Lampoon, Phayao, and Chiang Rai, (c) 20.4% from other northern provinces, and (d) 1.2% from other parts of Thailand. Based on our data, the common cancers by relative frequency are the cancers of the lung, cervix, liver, breast and non- Hodgkin's lymphoma. The current treatment options used to manage the leading cancers are described in this article.