Background: Cancer in children though less frequent as compared to cancer in older people, evidence accumulated across the World indicates an increasing risk during the last decades. In Iraq in general and in the south of the country in particular, claims and counter claims are propagated every now and then on the childhood cancer and the proposition that environmental factors are playing a role in the increased risk (if any) is controversial. Methods: In this study data were compiled on new cancer cases diagnosed in all health care institutions in Basrah among children aged less than 15 years over an eight-year period (2004-2011). Cases were obtained mainly from the population of Basrah governorate but many cases were also visiting from neighbouring governorates. The latter were excluded from the present analysis. Results: The average annual incidence rate of all childhood cancers was 11.23 per 100000 children. Three groups of cancers occupied the top list. These are leukaemias accounting for 31.1% or 3.56 per 100000 children, lymphomas accounting for 19.6% or 2.20 per 100000 children and brain tumours accounting for 9.7% or 1.09 per 100000 children. A modest rise in the incidence rate was observed over the years 2004-2011. Conclusions: The evidence for increasing risk with time is not strong. Cancer of children, however, is a significant health problem and requires intensive health care to deal with. Multidisciplinary team research work is essential and comprehensive team approach to care is mandatory.

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Lymphomas of the bone and musculoskeletal tissue are uncommon. Yet, they constitute a certain frequency that they merit certain consideration. A study was conducted to clarify the behavior of such type of lymphomas in the South of Iraq, epidemiologically, clinically, pathologically, biochemically and immunologically. Results show that they form minority among total lymphoma cases, but they were the third common type among extranodal lymphomas with male gender, adult age and urban residency predominance. There was a predominance of low performance status, absence of B symptoms, neurological and musculo-skeletal manifestations, secondary bone, especially the spine, involvement. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) was the most predominant, mainly the intermediate grade, with diffuse large cell lymphoma (DLCL) and Burkitt lymphoma (BL) as the main histological types encountered. Hematologically, there was mild anemia, rapid ESR (> 50 mm), normal platelets count in the majority, leucocytosis in < half and monocytopenia predominance. Biochemically they were characterized by normal liver function tests with the exception of high serum alkaline phosphatase, normal total serum proteins, hypoalbuminemia, normal serum urea, creatinine & uric acid, hypercalcemia, with serum LDH and B2MG elevation in the majority. Serum anti EB virus antibodies were seen in 1/4th of cases and the majority were of the higher IPI scores (both high intermediate & high). Those results were comparable to some and contradicting to other studies elsewhere.

Objectives: The aim of this work was to determine the five years survival of patients with breast cancer attending the Oncology Center of Basrah between October 1999 and December 2001. Methods: Three hundred eight patients attending the Oncology Center for registration and treatment during the years 1999-2001 were studied and the status of each whether alive or dead was ascertained after one year and five years. Result: Among 308 patients, 5 were males, 68.16% were in advanced stage (i.e. stage 2-4) and 5 years survival was (25.24 %). Conclusion: Five years survival of breast cancer in Basrah is low. This needs the adoption of wide scale screening program to help early detection and to review the care and modalities of treatment to improve the outcome.