Cervical and prostate cancers continue to be the leading causes of death among cancer patients in Zimbabwe according to the delayed 2019 report released by the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry.
Cervical cancer remains the most widespread cause of cancer death in women in the country, accounting for 12 percent of all cancer deaths recorded in Zimbabwe.
Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, with a 11 percent share of deaths.
A total of 2 416 cancer deaths comprising 1 136 (47 percent) males and 1 280 (53 percent) females were recorded in Harare, Chitungwiza and Bulawayo in 2019.
"The leading causes of the deaths were cervical cancer (12 percent), prostate (11 percent), oesophagus (8 percent), breast (7 percent), liver (6 percent), stomach (5 percent), lung (5 percent), and colo-rectal (4 percent) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (3 percent). The other cancers constituted 39 percent of the recorded deaths," the 2019 ZNCR report shows.
Zimbabwe registered an important milestone -- successfully recording and conducting cancer surveillance for 30 years, a feat only achieved by only two registries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Uganda is the other country to have achieved this.
The total number of new cancer cases recorded among Zimbabweans of all races (including non-melanoma skin cancer) in 2019 was 7 173 comprising 2 951 (41.1 percent) males and 4 222 (58.9 percent) females.
The most frequently occurring cancers among Zimbabweans of all races in 2019 were cervix uteri (22 percent), prostate (11 percent), breast (8 percent), oesophagus (5 percent), colo-rectal (4 percent), stomach (4 percent), Kaposi sarcoma (KS) (4 percent), NHL (3 percent) and liver (3 percent).
The other cancers accounted for 36 percent of the registered malignancies.
The leading causes of cancer among Zimbabwean black men in 2019 were prostate cancer (28.4 percent) followed by oesophagus (8.3 percent), KS (6.0 percent), stomach (5.5 percent), liver (5.4 percent), NHL (5.3 percent) lung (4.2 percent), colon (2.6 percent), rectum (2.4 percent) and penis (2.4 percent).
In Zimbabwean black women, the most frequent cancers were cervical cancer (40.8 percent), breast (13.0 percent), oesophagus (4.0 percent), stomach (3.1 percent), ovary (2.6 percent), NHL (2.4 percent), vulva (2.2 percent), KS (2.1%), liver (1.9 percent) and corpus uteri (1.8 percent).
Cancer of the prostate (32.5 percent) was the most diagnosed among the non-black male population in the 2019 report followed by colon cancer (8.5 percent), lung (7.7 percent), melanoma skin cancer (7.7 percent), oesophagus (4.3 percent), rectum (4.3 percent) pancreas (3.4 percent), stomach (2.6 percent), bladder (2.6 percent) and gallbladder (2.6 percent).
The most common cancers in non-black Zimbabwean women were breast (31.4 percent), colon (11.0 percent), cervix uteri (8.5 percent), rectum (7.6 percent), ovary (6.8 percent), corpus uteri (4.2 percent), oesophagus (3.4 percent), lung (3.4 percent), bladder (3.4 percent) and stomach (2.5 percent).
A total of 263 childhood cancers (age 0-14) of all races were registered and these accounted for 3.7 percent of all the cancers recorded in 2019.
The most common childhood cancers of all races recorded in 2019 were leukaemia (blood cancer) (18 percent), renal tumours (13 percent), lymphoma (disease fighting system) (13 percent), soft tissue (11 percent), central nervous system (10 percent), retinoblastoma (eye cancer) (6 percent), bone tumours (5 percent) and neuroblastoma (nerve cell) (5 percent).
Others accounted for 13 percent of childhood cancers.
There was a decline in the number of new cancer cases registered in 2019 when compared with the previous year (2018).
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"The observed decline can be partly attributed to loss of histology database as a result of computer failure at one of the Harare pathology laboratories," said Eric Chokunonga, the registrar of the ZNCR.
"Another pathology laboratory also had computer challenges resulting in ZNCR staff having to resort to manual methods of abstracting data from source documents at the facility.
"We believe that a number of cases may have been lost because of the problems experienced with the filing systems. However, since the ZNCR is a multiple source surveillance system, some of the cases were picked up at our other sources of information."
The rise in cancer cases in Zimbabwe is largely due to changes in diet and rapid urbanisation.
Cancer experts say as the country was rapidly urbanising, more people were getting cancers related to lifestyle rather than those linked to poverty.
Late diagnosis has also led to most cancer patients losing their lives prematurely.
