Background & objectives: Cancer is a major public health problem in many countries of the world. At the present time, cancer is the third leading cause of death in developing countries. The aim of this study was to determine of epidemiologic status and incidence rates of cancers in the patients above 15 years old in East Azerbaijan province , Iran.

  Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 3832 new cancer cases were obtained from cancer registries in East Azerbaijan province in 2012. Characteristics of all registered cancers (including age, sex, and etc) were collected in a special form. Then the data were summarized and coded using the International Classification of Disease (ICD). Frequency, mean, standard deviation and 95% confidence interval of the study variables were calculated. Age standardized incidence rate was performed by direct method using the world standard population. The data was analyzed by SPSS 16 software.

  Results: Among 3832 cases, 2047(53.5%) were males and 1782 (46.5%) were females. The mean age and standard deviation of cancer incidence were 58.1 and 15.8 years, respectively. The overall incidence rate of all types of cancer in population was 132.5 in 100000 people per year. Among men, the highest frequency (263) of all cancers occurred in the 65-69 age group but in women the highest (220) of them occurred in the 50-54 age group. The highest incidence rate (813.3 per 100000) of cancers had occurred in men who were older than 85 years. While the highest (406.3 per 100000) of them in women had occurred in 70-74 years. The most common cancers among males and females were stomach (11.4%) and breast (30%), respectively. Histopathologically the most common cancers of stomach, breast and skin were adenocarcinoma, infiltrating duct carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma, respectively.

  Conclusion: According to the results, the most common cancers in East Azerbaijan province were breast and stomach, respectively. Therefore, comprehensive and complementary studies for recognizing relevant factors seem to be essential.