Epidemiology of hematopoietic cancers in north of Iran: results of Mazandaran population based cancer registry

Objective: Hematopoietic malignancies include leukemias, lymphomas, plasma cell tumors, myelodysplastic syndromes, and malignant mastocytosis. There are very rare population-based epidemiological studies in hematopoietic cancers in Iran. The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of hematopoietic cancers in the north of Iran. Patients and Methods: This longitudinal study was carried out on cancer incidence data of Mazandaran Population-based Cancer Registry (MazPCR), which is responsible for recording cancer cases in the population of all counties of Mazandaran province (except Babol, which is covered by the Babol University of Medical Science) in 2014. We used SPSS 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) for statistical analysis. Chi-Square test was used and p-values < than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The Age-Standardized incidence Rates (ASRs) of leukemia were 8.2 and 5.4 per 100,000 in men and women, respectively. The ASRs of lymphoma among men and women were 7.1 and 3.2 and the ASRs of multiple myeloma were 1.7 for men and 1.8 for women. The ASRs of lymphoma and multiple myeloma in urban areas were higher than rural, while the ASR of leukemia in rural areas was higher. Conclusions: The ASRs of leukemia and lymphoma were higher in males and the ASR of multiple myeloma was higher in females in this study. The ASRs of leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the MazPCR coverage area were higher than estimated ASRs in the world and Iran, while ASRs of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma were lower than those estimated for the world and Iran