Sources from the MOH Information Media and Health Awareness Center have affirmed that the cancer incidence rates are still globally low, and the Ministry of Health works on providing the diagnostic and curative services for the patients of cancer through all its health facilities.
This comes at a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) and Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) mark the World Cancer Day, under the theme "Cancer - Did you know?", on the fourth of February of every year. This is with the aim of reducing the death rates of the non-infectious diseases, including cancer, to 25% in 2025.
The potential goals of marking the World Cancer Day can be summarized with regard to the importance of creating effective programs to prevent from cancer and reduce the rate of exposure to the critical factors causing cancer in community such as exposure to tobacco smoke, obesity, and others. They also include providing all-inclusive vaccination programs for all the community individuals, developing diagnosis means for the disease, preparing and training the medical cadres, and conducting medical survey and detecting the number of those suffering from cancer in community. They also cover providing medications and recreational treatment for cancer patients, refuting misconceptions circulating among the laymen on cancer, and the causes of injury and treatment. As such, realizing these goals requires taking all the necessary political procedures to control the disease, develop means of prevention and early detection, provide treatment, and facilitate the access of health services to patients.
It is worth mentioning that the cancer incidence rates in the Kingdom are still globally low; as the standardized incidence rate of cancer in the world amounts to 100,000/180. For its part, the Ministry of Health (MOH) works on providing the diagnostic and curative services for cancer patients through all its health facilities, as well as through the MOH'S specialized tumor centers, which are located in big cities: Tumor Center at King Fahad Medical City, King Fahad Hospital in Dammam, King Abdullah Hospital in the Holy City (Makkah), Tumor Center in Al-Qassim, and Tumor Center in Madinah.
Currently, 3 more centers specialized in tumor treatment are being established; they have been approved in this year's MOH's budget. They are to be established in Al-Ahsa, Ha'il, and Jizan at a 300 total bed capacity. This is within the framework of the National Project for an Integrated and Comprehensive Health Care, and a desire in providing the best health services for citizens'. Further, raising the citizen's health awareness and upgrading tumor detection and diagnosis means have contributed, May Allah be praised, to encouraging citizens to conduct periodical examinations and early detection for tumors. This has in turn been reflected on the rates of injured cases registration according to the national record for tumors.
Meanwhile, the MOH's Information Media and Health Awareness Center pointed out that the WHO's estimates underline that such a disease could lead to the death of 84 million lives from 2005 to 2015.
Within the same vein, the Center underlined that the distribution of the most widely-spread cancer cases in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of the two genders reached to 2292 cases in 2011. Thus, the female's disease rates reached 28,6% breast cancer, 12,6% thyroid cancer, 5,9% colorectal cancer, 5,3% uterine cancer, 4,4% oral cavity cancer, 3,4% non-hodgkin's lymphoma cancer, 3,2% ovarian cancer, 3,2% brain and central nervous system cancer, and 2,3% cervical cancer.
As for males, the Center underlined that the rates reached 9,3% colorectal cancer, 8,6% leukemia, 7,4% non-hodgkin's lymphoma cancer, 6,4% liver cancer, 5,8% brain and central nervous system cancer, 5,2% thyroid cancer, 4,9% nasopharyngeal carcinoma, 4,8% lung cancer, and 4,1% bladder cancer.