Oncological pathology in a main Hospital in the XXI century: New cases in the H.U.C. (Coimbra University Hospital)

Abstract

Cancer is an increasingly serious health problem. It is absolutely
fundamental to use all means at our disposal to gain a deeper
understanding of oncological disease. One of these means is to register oncological cases.
The main objective of this work is to observe the evolution of
oncological disease in a main hospital.
Data were collected from cases of primary malignant tumours
diagnosed de novo or treated and which had been registered on
the database of the hospital’s Cancer Registry over a period of 7
years, between 2000 and 2006.
Over the last 4 years there has been a gradual increase in new cases in general and in the hospital.
The most commonly affected areas were the skin (more than
80% were squamous and basocellular carcinomas), followed
by the prostate and the breast. Cancer of the colon and rectum
together, were the most frequent. There was a significant increase
in lung cancer, especially in men.
With the exception of breast cancer, all forms of cancer were
diagnosed at an earlier age. All cases of malignant neoplasms
were more frequent in men.
Lastly, we can state that these data are a useful contribution
to the general picture of the oncological situation of the hospital.
In this group of population, cancer of the breast, prostate and
of the intestine continue to be those that require our attention
the most. In order to understand better oncological disease in a
hospital and to assess the care given it is fundamental to have
a reliable hospital oncology register which can describe well the
disease and can enable its follow-up.