The Prevalence of Oral Cancer in Saudi Arabia – A Systematic Review

Author(s):

Sakeenabi Basha*, Roshan Noor Mohamed, Yousef Al-Thomali and Ammar Saleh Al Shamrani

Background: Oral cancer is the 10th most common cancer in the world and third most common cancer in Saudi Arabia.

Objectives: The present systematic review is conducted to assess the prevalence and causative factors of oral cancer in Saudi Arabia.

Materials and Methods: This review conducted in adherence to PRISMA standards of quality for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses and was registered in PROSPERO with registration number CRD42017057791. Our systematic search included MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Scopus, and key journals and review articles; the date of the last search was December 2018. We graded the methodological quality of the studies by means of the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies, developed for the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP).

Results: A total of 82 studies were identified for screening, and 9 studies were eligible. All the studies were retrospective hospital records based. Oral cancer prevalence varied from 21.6% to 68.6%. Male to female ratio varied from 36.6% to 65.4%. Use of smokeless form of tobacco, Shamma was the main cause for oral cancer.

Conclusions: The present review showed a very high prevalence of oral cancer in Saudi Arabia with the main causative agent the use of smokeless tobacco Shamma.