Incidence and Trends of Malignant and Benign Pancreatic Lesions in Yazd, Iran between 2001 and 2011

Background: Despite recent valuable steps in initiating a cancer registry in Iran, data depicting prevalence, incidence, and clinical picture of pancreatic tumors in the country are exceedinglyly sparse. With the aim of filling this knowledge gap, we reviewed cases in the pathology archive of Shahid Sadoughi hospital (Yazd, Iran), between 2001 and 2011. Materials and Methods: Medical records of 177 patients are reported in the present study. In cases for which paraffin-embedded blocks were available, the specimens were evaluated by two independent pathologists blinded to the primary diagnosis. We extrapolated the frequency of malignant lesions in our study to the population of Yazd province, derived from national census data, to generate cancer incidence rates. Results: Final diagnosis of malignancy was made in 117 cases (66.1%), and the remainder (60 lesions, 33.9%) were classified as benign. Adenecarcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors were the two most common histological types of malignancy identified in 88 (75.2%) and 11 (9.4%) specimens, respectively. Crude annual incidence of pancreatic cancer was 0.55 per 100,000 person in 2001 and increased to 1.68 in 2011. Age standardized incidence rates in 2001 and 2011 were 0.75 and 2.68, respectively. A significant increasing trend in cancer incidence was observed during the 11 years of the study period (r=+0.856, p=0.009). Sex-stratified analysis, confirmed the observed trend in men (r=+0.728, p=0.034), but not women (r=+0.635, p=0.083). Conclusions: Over the past decade, incidence of pancreas malignancies has risen steadily in Yazd, Iran. Nevertheless, these figures are still substantially lower than those prevalent in developed nations.