Cancer incidence in Jordan, 1996–2005

Cancer causes 14% of all deaths in Jordan. This paper presents the incidence of cancer in Jordan from 1996 to 2005. Over the 10-year period there were 33 661 cases of cancer. The average crude incidence rate was 66.2 per 100 000 for males and 70.0 per 100 000 for females (age-standardized rates: 119 per 100 000 adult males and 116 per 100 000 adult females). The 5 most frequently reported cancers among adult males were: lung (10.6%), colorectal (9.8%), leukaemia (9.3%), urinary and bladder (8.6%) and prostate (7.4%). For adult females these were: breast (32.0%), colorectal (9.0%), leukaemia (6.7%), thyroid (4.9%) and corpus uteri (4.6%). Cancer rates have changed little since 1996.