History of Cancer Registration in Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam is a very populous developing country with the population in 1999’s census of more than 76 million and populationdensity of 231 pers/km2. The annual population grow rate in 1999 was 1.8%. It is an “young” population with 50%inhabitants under the age of 25. The life expectancy at birth is 65 in males and 70 in females. The country is divided into8 ecological regions and 61 provinces. The income estimated in 1999 is about 400 USD per capita. It is still a largely agricultureeconomy with two thirds of its population still dependent on agriculture for living.The first population based cancerregistry had been established in Hanoi in 1988 by the National Cancer Institute collecting the information of cancer patientsfrom 22 different hospitals and medical research institutes in the city. The population of city following the 1999 censuswas 2672122. In 1990, a population-based cancer registry of Ho Chi Minh City had been founded by the oncology centerof HCMC (Table 1). The population of city in 1999 was 5037155. Population based cancer registries of other provincessuch as Hue, Hai phong, and Thai Nguyen are now being founded.