Ammon News - AMMAN - Cancer is the second leading killer in Jordan, a recently released study indicated.

A study conducted by three Jordanian oncologists released this week revealed that cancer was the cause of 14 per cent of deaths in the Kingdom from 1996 to 2005.

The study, made available to The Jordan Times yesterday, showed that 33,661 Jordanians were diagnosed with cancer between January 1996 and December 2005: 16,981 in males and 16,680 in females.

It also showed that the five most frequently reported cancers among adult males during the period were: Lung (10.6 per cent), colorectal (9.8 per cent), leukaemia (9.3 per cent), urinary and bladder (8.6 per cent) and prostate (7.4 per cent).

For adult females, the five most frequent cancers were: Breast (32.0 per cent), colorectal (9.0 per cent), leukaemia (6.7 per cent), thyroid (4.9 per cent) and corpus uteri (4.6 per cent), the report stated.

The study comes as part of efforts to assist the health sector in coming up with strategies and polices to address the issue of cancer in Jordan, according to oncologist Sami Khatib, member of the study team.

“This is the first comprehensive study on cancer incidence in the country since the National Cancer Registry was established in 1996,” Khatib told The Jordan Times yesterday, adding that the main aim of the study is to define disease trends in the Kingdom to draft prevention and treatment strategies.

The prevalence of cancer types among males and females in Jordan is consistent with regional trends, he said, pointing out that breast cancer is the most common cancer among females and lung cancer the dominant cancer among males in the Arab world.

Although the study indicated that the actual burden of cancer in Jordan remains “acceptable”, with less than 5,000 new cases each year, it warned that the burden might increase due to the demographic and socio-economic changes taking place in the Kingdom.

The study was conducted by oncologists Khatib, Mohammad Tarawneh and Kamal Abu Arqoub.

* By Khetam Malkawi/ Jordan Times