The Epidemiology of Chondrosarcoma in Iran Based on Iran National Cancer Registry

Background: Chondrosarcoma is regarded as the second most common primary bone malignancy following osteosarcoma. Objectives: The present study aimed at determining the epidemiology, incidence, and survival rate of chondrosarcoma in the Iranian population, according to the Iran National Cancer Registry (INCR). Methods: In an epidemiological study, patients with limb chondrosarcoma were evaluated based on INCR data between 2008 and 2015. Data included patients’ demographic characteristics, date of diagnosis, location of the tumor, patient’s survival, and type of tumor based on the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O-3; first revision, third edition) were collected and analyzed. Results: Out of 732 enrolled patients, 425 patients (58.06%) were male and 307 (41.94%) were female with a mean age of 44.08 (SD = 19.31) and 45.06 (SD = 18.72), respectively. Age-standardized incidence rates (ASIR) were 1.73 and 1.27 per 1 million person-years for males and females, respectively. Conventional chondrosarcoma was the most common subtype with ASIR 1.28 and constituted 84.7% of patients with chondrosarcoma. About 71.03% of all Chondrosarcoma patients (70.35% of males and 71.99% of females) were between 20 to 59 years old. The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year survival rates of patients were 0.87, 0.73, 0.57, and 0.47, respectively. Also, the mean survival time was 6.12 years (95% CI: 5.85 - 7.39). Conclusions: The incidence of chondrosarcoma in Iran is not as high as in other countries, but as patients are younger in Iran, the survival rate is worse compared to other countries. Therefore, better case findings and better care are needed to improve the patients' outcomes in Iran.