Three-year cancer incidence in Blantyre, Malawi (2008–2010)

In this paper, we present incidence rates of different cancers calculated for the population of Blantyre, Malawi for the period 2008–2010, using data from the Malawi Cancer Registry. Active methods were used for case finding, with standard checks for accuracy and validity performed in CanReg 4. During this 3-year period, a total of 3,711 cases were registered comprising 1,643 men (an estimated age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) of 169.8 per 100,000) and 2,068 women (ASR 238.7 per 10⁵). Kaposi sarcoma (KS) was the most common cancer in men (40.5% of all cancers in men; ASR 54.0 per 10⁵) while cervical cancer was the commonest in women (33.3%; ASR 88.6 per 10⁵). The incidence rates for esophageal cancer remain one of the highest in the world (ASR 30.9 per 100,000 in men, 22.1 per 100,000 in women). Incidence of cancer of the prostate is relatively low in Blantyre (5.1%; ASR 16.4 per 10⁵), compared with elsewhere in Africa. In childhood, the cancer spectrum is dominated by Burkitt lymphoma (32.5% ASR 90.9 per 10⁶) followed by Wilms tumor (11.3%; ASR 35.9 per 10⁶) and pediatric KS (11.0%; ASR 31.1 per 10⁶). The overall percentage of cases with histological verification was 47.5%, a slight improvement from 42.4% in late 1990s also indicating successful case finding outside laboratories.