geographic, sex and age distribution of esophageal cancer incidence in iran: a population-based study

background: esophageal cancer is the second most common malignancy in iranian men and third most common in iranian women.the aim of this study is to discover the geographic distribution for age-standardized incidence rate of esophageal cancer among both genders in iran. methods: this ecological study used re-analysis medical records aggregated to provinces from the national cancer registry and disease control and prevention report of the ministry of health and medical education for esophageal cancer in 2008. for each province, we calculated the average annual age-standardized incidence rate. results: squamous cell carcinoma was the most common histological type of esophageal cancer in males (65.4%) and females (75%). the age-standardized incidence rate for esophageal cancer in western, northwest, northern and northeast provinces of iran were higher than other provinces. we observed the highest agestandardized incidence rate in both genders in the 80-84 year age group with 147.5 in males and 114.5 in females. conclusion: given that the western, northwest, northern, and northeast provinces were hot zones for esophageal cancer in iran, increased access to screening services and implementation of prevention programs should be considered.