Background: Global burden of cancer is on rise and trends and pattern of cancers are rapidly changing different geographic and population groups. Gall bladder cancers are emerging with increasing proportion among select areas and groups and understanding these variations are important for appropriate strategies and interventions. However, absence of a well-developed universal cancer registry system in India, institution based secondary data analysis can generate useful information. The present study was conducted to determine the trend and pattern of cancer cases (with special reference to gall bladder cancer) treated in a tertiary care hospital in northern part of West Bengal.
Methods: Record based cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of Radiotherapy, North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. All newly registered cases between (2010 and 2012) were reviewed.
Results: A total of 2058 cancer cases were recorded during the 3-year period. Of these, major types of cancers were oro-pharynx (16.1%), breast (15.4%), cervix (13.2%), lung (12.7%), gall bladder (6.5%) stomach cancer (6.4%), etc., Increasing proportions was observed for breast and gall bladder cancers. The proportion of gallbladder cancer cases in 2010, 2011, and 2012 were 3.8%, 7.3% and 7.8%, respectively. Among 134 gall bladder cancer cases, 93.3% were females, 85.1% alcoholics, 57.4% had a history of fatty liver, 94% had adeno/adenosquamous carcinomas, and 65.7% were metastatic in nature.
Conclusions: Increasing trend is observed in gall bladder cancer cases emphasizing the need for further large scale studies.
Keywords: Changing trends and patterns; gall bladder cancers; secondary data.