Incidence, Mortality, and Epidemiology of Leukemia in South Asia: An Ecological Study

Background: Nowadays cancer is a buzzword in every corner of the world. Back a few decades, cancer was not that much known to the people of South Asia let alone known of Leukemia. Many countries in the South Asian region are designated as developing countries. Hence, the deficiency of diagnosis system, treatment, management, and lack of knowledge about leukemia in this region are major problems. Therefore, the incidence rate, mortality rate, and several deaths are increasing day by day. Methods: This cross-sectional study is aimed to investigate the incidence and mortality of leukemia in South Asian Countries for the year 2020 by acquiring data from the global cancer project (GLOBOCAN2020) accessible at https://gco.iarc.fr. Results: In South Asia, 1,733,573 cancer cases were documented in 2020 where 62,163 cases were leukemia related. The highest incidence rate was reported in Pakistan (4.3 in 1,000,000) and Sri Lanka (4.1 in 1,000,000) and the lowest in Bangladesh (1.8 in 1,000,000) and Nepal (2.0 in 1,000,000). On the other hand, 1,124,875 death had been reported in 2020, where 45,707 (4.1%) death was associated with leukemia. Pakistan (3.4 in 1,000,000) and Maldives (3.1 in 1,000,000) had the highest death and lowest in Bangladesh (1.4 in 1,000,000) and Nepal (1.5 in 1,000,000). Adults aged from 60 - 85 years old have the highest rate of incidence and mortality rate in all countries except Nepal. Conclusions: Leukemia is one of the major concerning cancer of all ages people in South Asia, the situation and related risk factors information can be helpful to reduce death through proper treatment.