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the WHO global report published in October last year.

Against this backdrop, Bangladesh, along with the rest of the world, observed World Cancer Day on February 4 under the theme “United by Unique,” calling for placing people at the centre of cancer care and their stories at the heart of the conversation.

The Public Health and Informatics Department at BMU has, for the first time in the country, established a population-based cancer registry in Hossainpur upazila and began the study in July 2023.

Led by Md Khalequzzaman, an associate professor at the department, the study team collected data from 2.32 lakh people across 51,900 households until March last year.

Of them, a total of 245 cancer patients were registered, including 129 males (52.7 percent) and 116 females (47.3 percent), the data show.

The findings indicate a cancer prevalence of 109.1 per 100,000 population, with a higher prevalence among males (118.9 per 1 lakh) than females (99.9 per 1 lakh).

Age-wise, the highest proportion of cancer cases was recorded in the 51–60 age group (28.6 percent), followed by the 41–50 age group (24.5 percent).

The team carried out follow up on 1.28 lakh participants, registering 69 new cases (53.6 percent 1,00,000 population) and the proportion of deaths is 11.1 percent.

A history of smoking was reported by 72.9 percent of the male cancer patients, while none of the female patients reported smoking.

However, smokeless tobacco use was more common among females (60.3 percent) than males (38 percent), the data show.

The study identified 38 types of cancer, with breast cancer accounting for the highest number of cases at 42 (17 percent), followed by lip and oral cavity cancer with 19 cases (7.8 percent).

Of the 38 cancer types, 14 are tobacco-related, accounting for 46 percent of all cancer cases, Khalequzzaman said.

Lip and oral cavity cancer accounted for 7.8 percent, followed by larynx cancer (6.9 percent), stomach cancer (6.1 percent), cervix cancer (5.3 percent), lung cancer (4.9 percent) and oesophagus cancer (4.5 percent), the data shows.

The top five cancers among males are oesophagus, lip and oral cavity, lung, hypopharynx and stomach, according to GLOBOCAN 2022, developed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer research arm of WHO.

Among females, the top five cancers are breast, cervix uteri, oesophagus, gallbladder, and lip and oral cavity, the data show.

The study shows that tobacco use is a major factor driving the country’s growing cancer burden, said Khalequzzaman.

“However, tobacco-related cancers are preventable by avoiding tobacco use, and the rising cancer burden can therefore be reduced.”

Greater emphasis should be placed on controlling smokeless tobacco use, which has become more or less culturally accepted, as it is a leading cause of lip and oral cavity cancers -- the most commonly reported cancers in the study.