Frequency of Referrals of Cancer Patients Referred to Hospitals Affiliated to the Babol University of Medical Sciences according to the International Classification of Diseases

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Cancers are a wide range of diseases, and their numbers are increasing but the severity of the disease is varied in different cancers. This study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of referrals of cancer patients referred to hospitals affiliated to the Babol University of Medical Sciences based on ICD10. METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted on all cancer patients referring to hospitals affiliated to Babol University of Medical Sciences from 1992 to 2016. The information related to the patients who referred to these centers for the first time were collected and reviewed using a checklist including hospital name, case number, age, sex, occupation, marriage, place of residence, type of cancer and ICD code. FINDINGS: The highest frequency of cancer patients was related to male gender (50.7%, 3575 patients), married patients (87.2%, 6147 patients), and were related to Babol (16.8%, 1889 patients), Amol (14.4%, 1018 patients) and Sari (11.8%, 833 patients). Most of the patients were in the age group of 70 and above and the problem was mostly associated with the gastrointestinal organs, breast and respiratory organs. There was no significant difference between the type of cancer and the place of residence, but there was a significant relationship with age, sex, type of residence, type of occupation and marital status (p=0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of the study showed that the pattern of cancer in different cities is similar and increases with age