Cancer Surveillance in Ekurhuleni District in Gauteng Province—A Representation of South African Population, 2021

PURPOSE Cancer surveillance provides data necessary for planning interventions, evaluating programs and determining resource allocation. Population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) are the gold standard for cancer surveillance globally. This report aims to present a 2021 cancer surveillance summary in Ekurhuleni PBCR. METHODS Cancer data were actively collected from eight public healthcare facilities (regional and tertiary hospitals), private healthcare oncology groups and hospices in Ekurhuleni district in Gauteng. Cases were extracted from all possible source documents and captured onto REDCap using a standardized data collection form. International Classification of Diseases for Oncology-3 guidelines were used for coding the site and morphology of each case. Stata MP (Version 17, StataCorp) was used for data cleaning, management and analysis. RESULTS In 2021, 4,631 cases were reported. 55% (n=2,526) of the cases were females and 45% (n=2,105) were males. The majority of cases were recorded from the black population (n=2,546, 55%) followed by white population (n=1,945, 42%). Black females contributed 34% and White males 24% of the total cases. The age groups 45-50 to 70-75-years contributed most cases (more than 400 cases from each age group). 57% of the cases were diagnosed from the public sector and 43% from private sector. Private sector cases consisted of 83% White population and public sector 88% of Black population. Most common cancers were basal cell carcinoma (White males and females) reported from private sector, breast and cervical cancers (Black females) and prostate cancer (black males) reported from public sector. CONCLUSION The most represented population groups are the Black and White. More sampling of PBCRs is needed to cater for Colored and Indian populations. Cases reported from private sector are not significantly lower than cases from public sector, as would be expected as private sector only serves 20% of the population. This indicates a high proportion of missing cases from public sector.