Yemen Observer: http://www.yobserver.com
Posted in:
Sports, Health & Lifestyle
Written By: Thuria Ghaleb
Article Date: Nov 27, 2007 - 3:18:47 AM
Malignant gastrointestinal tumors are an increasing threat to Yemenis’ lives, according to a new study.
The 2006 study was conducted on 200 Yemeni patients with gastrointestinal tract tumors, registered in the archive departments of the al-Jumhoury, al-Kuwait and al-Thawrah public hospitals in Sana’a governorate from January 1 to December 31, 2003. It was conducted by a team of ten researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Sana’a University with the aim of determining the incidence, pattern and anatomical distribution of gastrointestinal tract tumors among Yemeni patients.
The gastrointestinal tract is the part of the body that deals with the intake and defacation of food products, beginning with the mouth (oral cavity) and including, in order, the salivary glands, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, and the colorectal area. Benign (non-threatening) or malignant (those causing death) tumors can develop anywhere along the gastrointestinal tract.
Of the 200 cases studied, just seven were found to be benign. The study found that malignant tumors affected the gastrointestinal tract and accessory organs of 193 patients, or about 97 percent of the cases examined. The researchers say that this huge incidence of malignant tumors is a serious problem in Yemeni society and suggest that it may be related to poor education and insufficient knowledge about such diseases, which plays an important role in the diagnosis and referral time of cancer patients and getting them to hospital for treatment. About 30 percent of patients in the study were admitted to hospitals in late stages of the disease.
Residential factors and deficient diagnostic procedures in health centers, especially in rural areas, are some other factors leading to an increase in the rate of malignant gastrointestinal tract tumor patients, according to researchers. Furthermore, the proven link between these malignancies and socioeconomic standard and environmental factors may explain the increasing incidence in Yemeni society and other developing countries as a whole.
The study found that the esophagus, or tube leading from mouth to stomach, and stomach are the areas most commonly infected with malignant tumors. It was found that the most common zone of infection, 24 percent, was for esophageal cancer. Another 24 percent have cancer of the stomach.
The tongue was found to be the most common area in the mouth to be affected. According to the study, about 89 percent of patients who suffer from mouth cancer suffer from tongue cancer.
The study found that males, at 57 percent, are more prone to malignant tumors than females, at 44 percent. However, females are more likely to be infected with esophageal, stomach and colorectal cancers.
Fifty-one percent of malignant tumors were found among patients who are over 60 years of age, followed by 37 percent of cases among patients whose ages range between 41 to 60 years old. The study also found that the oldest age group most commonly suffered from esophageal and stomach cancers.
A relation to blood type was also found in the study. Type “O” blood group patients were found to be more prone to malignant tumors, especially esophageal, stomach and colorectal cancers. About 50 percent of patients infected with gastrointestinal tract malignant tumors were of the type “O” blood group and 35 percent of them were type “A”.
A connection between qat chewing and smoking was shown, with 71 percent of patients being regular users of qat and 57 percent of them being smokers. Esophageal, stomach, colorectal and liver cancers are the most common cancers linked with this group.
Just five percent of patients were found to have a family history of cancer, and abdominal pain was the main reason pushing 45 percent of patients to be examined.
As far as treatments are concerned, surgical therapy was given to about 62 percent of patients while another 17 percent were treated with chemotherapy.
Doctors say that the number of people infected with cancer in Yemen is increasing at a frightening rate, though there has been a satisfactory improvement over recent years.
Some 20,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in Yemen, according to the annual report of the World Health Organization. There has never been a national cancer registry in Yemen that might be able to track cases nationwide, but the Center Based Registry does track the number of cases that are seen at the National Oncology Center at Al-Jumhoury teaching hospital, according to the Head of Radiation Oncology at the center, Dr. Ahmed al-Baridah.
In the whole of Yemen there is just that one model center, located at Al-Jumhoury, which has been treating cancer patients for four years. This center can only receive 10 to 12 of the 50 to 60 patients who seek treatment at the center’s external clinics, and is insufficient to serve the huge number of cancer patients requiring treatment.
The study was supervised by Dr. Mohammed Habib, assistant professor in the Community Medicine Department in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Sana’a University and was prepared by Ali al-Baz, Akram Mahuob, Ashraf Alteri, Emad Abed, Khawla al-Hammadi, Issam al-Sabri, Lamia al-Shargabi, Khaled Maqbool, Fouad al-Ahdle and Fathiya al-Gailany.
Final recommendations included improving the archive departments in the hospitals to maintain accurate, detailed and complete information on cancer patients; specializing the centers for early detection of cancer and supporting the cancer charity fund as well as the Al-Jumhoury center for cancer patients.