Critical numbers of Yemenis are suffering from cancer

To be aged 46 or over means that you are more susceptible to cancer than other age groups, says a new local study which calls upon all people in this age-group to avoid cancer by taking routine examinations.

The study was conducted by researchers from Sana’a University and it focused on 500 patients chosen from the National Oncology Center in the Al-Jumhoury Teaching Hospital in Sana’a. The researchers found that people who are more than 46 years old are more prone to all kinds of cancer than those aged between 16 and 26 years old.

According to the study, 24 percent of the patients are suffering from cancer in their digestive system. The lymphatic system is also greatly afflicted with this disease, for it was found that 22 percent of the study patients are treated for this specific kind of cancer. Breast cancer comes in third, affecting around 16 percent of patients, while another 11 percent suffer from cancer in the reproductive system. Just 6 percent of the patients surveyed in this study are treated for respiratory system cancer.

Male patients often complain of cancer in different organs of the digestive system while breast cancer is the main cancer among females, the study said. It was also found that females are more prone to be afflicted with any kind of cancer than males.

The study recommended sending health committees from time to time to the different rural and remote areas in order to educate people about cancer and its causes, because it finds that most patients coming to the Oncology Center live in these places.

The increasing numbers of patients coming from different governorates to the only Oncology Center in the whole country in order to be treated drives the study to recommend establishing more centers specialized in treating cancers around the capitals of all governorates.

Most of the patients do not discover that they are afflicted with cancer until they recognize a tumor or feel pain, the study said. It is thus recommended to educate people about the importance of early diagnose of cancer, especially breast cancer. A smaller number of patients come to be treated, depending on their routine examinations.

People should be educated about what leads them to be afflicted with this disease, especially hereditary factors, the study recommended. Many surveyed patients are found to have close relatives who are suffering the same kind of cancer.

Other bad habits also contribute to the rising of cancer rates. These include smoking, using shama (a tobacco powder held in the mouth for several minutes), smoking mada’a and shisha (types of water pipes), and the spread of extremely poor oral hygiene.

“All of these factors play a direct role in the high incidence of several types of tumors; people should stop all their bad habits to live healthfully,” said Ahmed al-Baridah, Head of Radiation Oncology at the National Oncology Center.

Yemen has also seen an increased rate of several kinds of cancers, including mouth, tongue, throat, jaw, gullet, neck and pharynx cancer, largely as a result of chewing qat which is often sprayed with dangerous pesticides. The study, which is supervised by Mohammed al-Naeb who is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, also recommends activating the role of law to stop the use of such pesticides.

Economic conditions are still a hard problem for many patients as 47 percent of them are living under very poor conditions, according to the study. The study then calls upon all charitable organizations and donors to help these patients and to ease their suffering in fighting against this disease. Just 5 percent of the studied patients are recorded as living in good financial conditions.

The study, conducted by researchers in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Sana’a, finally recommends doing more field studies and surveys at the level of the entire country in order to know the real size of this problem in Yemen, and to make more efforts to stop the increasing rates of people affected with such disease.

The study was conducted by Jamal al-Lawzi, Hussein al-Awsaji, Ali al-Hamzi, Omar al-Sorori, Mu’en al-Daudahi, Ala’ al-Matari, Taghreed Ismail, Zainab Ahmed, Ghalia Dares and Yussra al-Yaf’ei.

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