Abstract

GRACIA MEDINA, Elías; GALAN ALVAREZ, Yaima  and  GOMEZ CABRERA, Erasmo. Increase of care service at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology from 1992 to 2000. Rev cubana med [online]. 2007, vol.46, n.2, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-302X.

The National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology (INOR in Spanish) is the main care center for cancer patients in the country. The characteristics of cases diagnosed with cancer at INOR from 1992 to 2000 were analyzed. A descriptive study was carried out to make a comparison among cases diagnosed in the three-year periods 1992-1994, 1995-1997 and 1998-2000 respectively, through a frequency distribution analysis of the number of cases by time, sex, age, primary location, clinical stage, treatment and most valid basis for diagnosis. It was found that number of reported cases increased by 65% in less than 10 years; females prevailed over males (60% vs 40%), over 50 years-old patients and cases diagnosed at early stages of the disease predominated; but there was a high percentage of cases without defined staging (31,2%). The main cancer locations were skin, uterus, breast, thyroid and laryx. The need of conducting an organizational study of INOR and the Cancer Care Network in the City of Havana, which will consider the setting of priorities related to care requeriments in surgical areas and in outpatient chemotherapy and will emphasize the particularities of the most frequent cancer locations, was evidenced.

Keywords : cancer; information system; statistics.