Cancer mortality in Israel 1991-2005

Cancer incidence and mortality in the population of persons with intellectual disability (ID) living in Israel is inadequately known. The data for this chapter were obtained from the Office of Medical Director (OMD), Division for Mental Retardation (DMR), Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services. Each case of death in residential care is reported to the OMD, who since 1991 has registered place of residence, date of birth, age at death, sex, ethnic background, level of ID, cause of death, autopsy and review committee, if established in a data register. The data concerned with cancer mortality were extracted for the mortality register for 1991-2005. For the years 1991-2005 among 1,107 deaths, 74 (6.6%) were due to cancer, with a mortality rate of 59.3 per 100,000 in this population. The most frequent neoplasms were digestive tract tumors (20/74) particularly rectal and colon cancer, brain tumors (10/74), lung cancer (8/74), and breast cancer (5/74). Conclusion: The mortality rate in our study, as well as in other mortality study on cancer death in people with ID in residential care is lower than in the general population. This may be due to a reduced cancer risk in persons with severe and profound ID. The good care of institutionalized persons for cancer prevention, surveillance and screening should take into account this particular distribution.