Souha Sahraoui
A population-based cancer registry, covering the Greater Casablanca of Morocco (with a 3.3 million population, according to the census of 2004) was established in 2007. The annual total number of expected cases (all cancers but skin) was 1503 men and 1833 women during 2004. Among males, the most frequent cancer was tobacco-related, lung cancer (age standardised incidence (ASR) 12.4 per 100 000), followed by prostate (ASR 9.5) and lymphomas ones (ASR 6.1). In females, the most frequent ones were those of the breast (ASR 35.04 per 100 000), cervix uteri (ASR 13.5), and thyroid (ASR 4.8). There is probably an underestimation of incidence, due to an inability to use source data (e.g deaths certificates), resulting in a rather high proportion of histological verified cases (87% overall). This population-based registry is the first in Morocco, and this estimated incidence can be extrapolated to the general population. As death certificates are an important source for the estimation, the quality of death certification should be considered as a possible cause of bias.
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