Analysis of the Relationships between Esophageal CancerCases and Climatic Factors Using a Geographic InformationSystem (GIS): a Case Study of Ardabil province in Iran

Abstract

Esophageal cancer is a mjaor health problems in many parts of the world. A geographical information system(GIS) allows investigation of the geographical distribution of diseases. The purpose of the present study wasto explore the relationship between esophageal cancer and effective climatic factors using GIS. The dispersiondistribution and the relationship between environmental factors effective on cancer were measured using ArcGIS. The highest degree of spread was in Germi town and the least was in Ardabil city. There was a significantrelationship between effective environmental factors and esophageal cancer in Ardabil province. The resultsindicated that environmental factors probably are influential in determining the incidence of esophageal cancer.Also, these results can be considered as a window to future comprehensive research on esophageal cancer andrelated risk factors.