Spatio-temporal mapping of breast and prostate cancers in South Iran from 2014 to 2017

Abstract

Background The most common gender-specific malignancies are cancers of the breast and the prostate. In developing countries, cancer screening of all at risk is impractical because of healthcare resource limitations. Thus, determining high-risk areas might be an important first screening step. This study explores incidence patterns of potential high-risk clusters of breast and prostate cancers in southern Iran. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in the province of Kerman, South Iran. Patient data were aggregated at the county and district levels calculating the incidence rate per 100,000 people both for cancers of the breast and the prostate. We used the natural-break classification with five classes to produce descriptive maps. A spatial clustering analysis (Anselin Local Moran’s I) was used to identify potential clusters and outliers in the pattern of these cancers from 2014 to 2017. Results There were 1350 breast cancer patients (including, 42 male cases) and 478 prostate cancer patients in the province of Kerman, Iran during the study period. After 45 years of age, the number of men with diagnosed prostate cancer increased similarly to that of breast cancer for women after 25 years of age. The age-standardised incidence rate of breast cancer for women showed an increase from 29.93 to 32.27 cases per 100,000 people and that of prostate cancer from 13.93 to 15.47 cases per 100,000 during 2014–2017. Cluster analysis at the county level identified high-high clusters of breast cancer in the north-western part of the province for all years studied, but the analysis at the district level showed high-high clusters for only two of the years. With regard to prostate cancer, cluster analysis at the county and district levels identified high-high clusters in this area of the province for two of the study years. Conclusions North-western Kerman had a significantly higher incidence rate of both breast and prostate cancer than the average, which should help in designing tailored screening and surveillance systems. Furthermore, this study generates new hypotheses regarding the potential relationship between increased incidence of cancers in certain geographical areas and environmental risk factors.

Colorectal Cancer in North-Eastern Iran: a retrospective, comparative study of early-onset and late-onset cases based on data from the Iranian hereditary colorectal cancer registry

“…In the last 10 years, a large number of research projects around the world have focused on early-onset CRC. The sample size of these studies ranged between 49 and 64,068 cases [5, 7-18, 48, 56-58] and the mean age of study subjects ranged between 37 and 47 years [5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][14][15][16][17][18]. In contrast to our study, the frequency of earlyonset CRC is generally reported to be higher in men than in women [5,7,10,11,[13][14][15][16][17]48], but various studies have yielded conflicting results [10,28,47,59].…”

“…According to several studies, the incidence early-onset CRC (affecting those < 50 years of age) varies between different parts of the world with nearly 20% of the cases found in Asia including the Middle East (where the disease is not unusual in < 40-year olds) as compared to 2-8% reported in the U.S. [7,8]. The mean age of earlyonset CRC ranges between 37 and 47 years around the world [5,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and 41-69% of these cases are men. Compared to Western World (Europe and the U.S.), the incidence of CRC is currently very low in the older Iranian population, while young Iranians are showing a rising trend [19].…”

“…The reason for the rising incidence and mortality of early-onset CRCs is unclear. Some authors suggest that the growing trend may be related to changing lifestyles, with an increasingly common type of patients characterized by overweight as evidenced by > 25 body mass index (BMI) and low physical activity, often also being current smokers, non-aspirin users and (pre) diabetics [7,[21][22][23][24][25]. A meta-analysis indicates that a CRC history in a first-degree relative (FDR), hyperlipidaemia, obesity and alcohol consumption are significant risk factors for early-onset CRC, while smoking, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, ulcerative colitis, chronic kidney disease, certain dietary factors, sedentary behaviour and occupational exposure to organic dusts can also be potential risk factors [26].…”

Spatial analysis of colorectal cancer outcomes and socioeconomic factors in Virginia

“…Going beyond simply ranking high values by locality, hotspot analysis identifies regional patterns with multiple adjacent localities where disparities may be harder to overcome without traveling long distances. Hotspot analysis has been used internationally, such as a Brazilian study of CRC and an Iranian study of breast and prostate cancer [ 21 , 22 ]. Examples from the U.S. include a U.S. national study to identify county clusters of high mortality rates [ 6 ] and a state-level study in Florida to identify areas with high rates of late-stage diagnoses [ 23 ].…”

A spatial-epidemiological dataset of subjects infected by SARS-CoV-2 during the first wave of the pandemic in Mashhad, second-most populous city in Iran

“…Analysing and interpreting the spatio-temporal transmission patterns of the virus are indispensable in order to generate the best-tailored strategies [ 6 ]. The strength of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications lies in their capability of mapping geographical disease distributions thereby visualizing trends of their spread, which can be utilized for modelling spatial aspects of disease occurrence in relation to the ambient environments [ 7 – 9 ].…”