Abstract:

There is a wide variation in the incidence and prevalence of cancer in different regions of the world and within the same country among different racial and ethnic groups. This study was undertaken for the first time in the high altitude, landlocked mountainous Kargil Ladakh region to analyze the incidence of different cancers. This study was the need of the hour as there was a rising trend of cancers and cancer related deaths in this region having not even a population of 1.5 lakhs, with various risk factors prevalent and peculiar to this region. It was very disheartening to see people die of cancers as young as 40 years. A 10 year (April 2009-April 2019) Hospital based study of 444 cancer patients showed gastric cancer (42.12%), Lung cancer (9.68%) and Liver cancer (9.24%) as the three leading cancers of the region. Gastrointestinal malignancies were the commonest malignancies and together accounted for half (51.35%) of all cancers. Rough terrain, extreme cold, exposure to high UV rays, high altitude with hypoxic conditions, unique food habbits of the region, peculiar culture and life-styles and high prevalence of Hepatitis B infections (8.3%) in the region were the various prevalent risk factors. As the pattern of cancers of this region were different from the rest of the India, well designed population based studies are essential, in future.