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Cancer continues to be an important cause of death in Singapore although it has tended to level off in recent years. 1 The possibility of mortality from cancer is of much concern to the local population, and vision loss from any cause is possibly the next most important health related concern. Ophthalmic malignancies are rare, accounting for about 0.15% of all cancers seen in Singapore residents from 1968 to 1992. 1 As a result, detailed epidemiological descriptions of eye cancers in Singapore have not been previously reported. As this information may be of interest to ophthalmologists, epidemiologists, pathologists, healthcare administrators, and other healthcare professionals, we describe the epidemiological characteristics of 125 cases of primary intraocular, conjunctival, and orbital cancers diagnosed in Singapore from 1968 to 1995. We have previously described the epidemiology of eyelid malignancies in Singapore residents from 1968 to 1995 in a separate report. 2
Materials and methods
We used, with permission, the data of all eye cancer cases in Singapore from 1968 to 1995 in the Singapore Cancer Registry. The Singapore Cancer Registry has collected data on cancers in Singapore since 1968. Physicians fill out a standardised form whenever a cancer is diagnosed clinically or on histopathology. Reports from all pathology laboratories and death certificates are also scrutinised and physicians are requested to provide information on cases that were not reported to the registry previously or when the forms are incomplete.
The Singapore Cancer Registry data cover all eye cancers diagnosed in Singapore, both Singapore residents and non-residents. Cases recorded by the Singapore Cancer Registry are filed according to the national registration identity card (NRIC) number. As this is a unique number for each resident in Singapore, the possibility of duplicate recording is eliminated. These cases of cancer are sourced from all death records (on computer tape), from all hospital discharge summaries, and from all pathology reports. This system ensures all cases of cancer diagnosed in Singapore are recorded.
In this report, we describe Singapore residents with cancers of the eye that were coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision (ICD-9), 3 site 190. A total of 138 cases were retrieved, of which 13 (9.4%) were not histologically verified. These 13 cases were omitted from the analysis. Calculation...