RIYADH, 1 September — Saudi Arabia has 39 cases of cancer per 100,000 of its population, which is much lower than the prevalence rate of this deadly disease in neighboring countries, Europe and the United States. The males constitute 54 percent of the total cancer cases reported in the Kingdom.
“Saudi Arabia has shown a modest figure in terms of the number of cancer patients, when compared with many countries including Kuwait, where 106 cases are reported per 100,000 population annually, Algeria (110 cases), Norway (266 cases) and the US (374 cases),” said a report released by the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH) here yesterday.
The KFSH, which will hold a major international symposium on cancer on Oct. 15, said various types of cancer have been found in the Kingdom.
Referring to the plan to organize a symposium, which will specifically focus on breast cancer and lymphoid neoplasia, a KFSH official Homoud Al-Otaibi, while quoting statistics from the National Cancer Registry, said that 19 percent of patients out of the total cases reported in the Kingdom suffer from breast cancer, 10.3 percent suffer from liver and lymphoma cancer and 8.8 percent from thyroid cancer.
Al-Otaibi said that “just over 10.2 percent of all cancers occur before the age of 15 among children and 29.8 percent occur after the age of 64 in Saudi Arabia.” The highest number of cancer cases have been reported from Riyadh region, followed by Dammam region and Makkah region, said the KFSH official, while referring to the world-class facilities at Saudi hospitals to treat cancer patients.
The Kingdom, however, has set up King Fahd National Center for Children’s Cancer and Research to provide free treatment to child patients.
Referring to the international symposium on cancer to be hosted by the KFSH, Dr. Futwan Al-Mohnna, chairman of the symposium organizing committee, said that a panel of 50 distinguished local and international speakers will present research papers on different aspects of oncology. Some of the specific topics to be addressed include pathology, epidemiology, therapy and nursing issues.
