Objectives: To estimate the cancer incidence by age group and gender for the population of Karachi Division by analyzing the Karachi Cancer Registry data of 2017-19. Settings: The population of Karachi division is 16.1 million according to national census 2017. 'Karachi Cancer Registry' which is a part of 'National Cancer Registry' is collecting data from eight major hospitals in Karachi since 2017. For outcome measures, cancer counts and the age standardized incidence rates (ASIR) per 100,000 population were computed for age groups (0-14, 15-19 and ≥20 years), in both genders and all cancer site/type. Methods: The population denominators were based on the population of Karachi division estimated at 16.1 million in the population census, 2017. Counts and age-standardized incidence rates (ASIR) were calculated for each of the three age categories. Results: From Jan 2017 till Dec 2019 a total of 33,309 malignant cases were recorded in KCR database comprising 17,490 (52.5%) females and 15,819 (47.5%) males. ASIRs in age groups 0-14, 15-19 and ≥ 20 years, among female were 11.5, 2.4 and 223.6 and in males were 17.6, 3.2 and 216.7 respectively. The commonest diagnosis in children, adolescent and adults were (1) among females: children; bone (3.12), leukemia (2.09) brain/CNS (1.26); in adolescents: bone (0.78), brain/CNS (0.27), connective and soft tissue (0.11), in adults: breast cancer (76.07), oral cancer (16.68) and ovary (10.89) respectively, and (2) among males: children; bone (4.56), leukemia (2.79) and brain/CNS (1.88); in adolescent; bone (1.19), brain/CNS (0.31) and leukemia (0.21) and in adults: oral cancer (42.83), liver (16.10) and bone (13.37) respectively. Conclusion: Oral Cancer, a largely preventable cancer is the leading cancer in Karachi adult males while in female adults Breast Cancer is the leading cancer followed by Oral Cancer. In children and adolescents Bone, Leukemia and Brain/CNS malignancies are most common.

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This study shows that the plasma resistin and IL-6 concentrations increased significantly in patients with ischemic heart disease with and without diabetes. This shows that there is a possible role of resistin and IL-6 in inflammatory processes, especially in atherosclerosis.

Three treatment regimens were tried in 145 portal hypertensives with bleeding oesophageal varices to test the efficacy of each regimen in the prevention of rebleeding. Forty-seven cases received oral propranolol, 57 sclerotherapy, while 41 who did not receive any treatment except conservative management served as controls. Patients were followed up at 6 weeks, 6 months, 1 and 2 years to see the frequency of bleeding with each regimen. No significant difference was seen at 6 weeks with either of the three regimens but at 6 months and 1 year the frequency of bleeding was significantly less (p < 0.05) in the propranolol group than in the other two groups while at 2 years results were significantly better with both propranolol (p < 0.05) and sclerotherpay (p < 0.001) than in controls. Efficacy of propranolol when compared with sclerotherapy showed similar results. The results of the present study are different from most of the western reports where sclerotherapy was found to be superior to propranolol. Variations in the results are likely to be due to differences in the etiology of portal hypertension in different countries.

To determine the presenting features and prognosis of nonalcoholic cirrhosis, retrospective analysis was done in 145 cases. Of the total, 48 patients (33%) belonged to the young (≤ 35 years), and 97 (67%) to the adult age group ( > 35 years) with no predominance of either sex. The etiology of cirrhosis and the positivity of viral markers were similar in both groups. Adults had on presentation a higher frequency of anorexia while hematemesis was more frequent in the young group (p < 0.001). During a mean follow-up ( ± SE) of 31.7 ± 5.5 and 16.3 ± 2.2 months in the young and adult group, respectively, 68 and 63% cases survived 5 years. Liver failure (53.8 and 44.4%) and variceal bleeding (23 and 11.1%) were the main causes of death in both groups, accounting for 27% mortality in each group.