Background: Sikkim is a state in the North East Part of India with a population of 610577 . The Population Based cancer Registry (PBCR)was established in the year 2003 under the National Registry Programme of India. This is the first 10 year report and comes out with interesting findings of risks in a tribal group (Bhutia ) in the population
Aim:The aim of the registry was to collect incident cancer cases in the entire state of Sikkim and also to look at cancers in different ethnic groups .
Methods:– Incident cancer cases were registered in the PBCR data base actively since 2003 . Age Adjusted incidence rates (AARs ) per 100000 person – years was calculated using the world Standard population and analyzed by Ethnic groups (Bhutia , Rai and Others )
Results: There were a total of 1976 male and 1858 female cases of cancer between 2003 and 2012 in the Sikkim PBCR . The overall AARs were 88.7 and 98.7 per 100000 person – years in Males and Females respectively. Incidence rates were highest among the the Bhutia group (AAR=172.4 and 147.4per 100000 person- years in males and females respectively) ,and the largest difference in rates were observed for stomach cancers with AARs being 12.6 and 4.7 times higher in the Bhutia group compared with other ethnic groups in Males and females respectively
Conclusions:– Based on the PBCR data of the past 10 years planning of screening programmes for vulnerable ethnic groups in a focused manner would be advantageous in a low resource setting .