Abstract
We conducted a preliminary survey on 3064 patients who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy at the Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana'a, Republic of Yemen, between January and December 1991. The age/sex distribution, demographic features and social habits with respect to cigarette and water-pipe smoking and Qat chewing were compared for patients with oesophageal and gastric cancers (n = 183). A preponderance of women with carcinoma of the mid-oesophageal was noted, previously only recorded in areas of high prevalence. Unlike Western populations, smoking and alcohol consumption were not significant risk factors. A high frequency of Qat chewing and water-pipe smoking was found for both men and women and for a group with tumours of the gastro-oesophageal junction or cardia (chi 2 = 2.646, P > 0.05). Numbers were insufficient to identify independent effects of each factor individually. Dietary habits alone were insufficient to account for the excess of affected females. A case-control study is now underway to investigate further the role of dietary factors, social habits, demographic features and Helicobacter pylori infection on the development of upper gastrointestinal cancer in the Yemen.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Cheng K. K., Day N. E. Oesophageal cancer in Britain. BMJ. 1992 Mar 14;304(6828):711–711. doi: 10.1136/bmj.304.6828.711. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Drake P. H. Khat-chewing in the Near East. Lancet. 1988 Mar 5;1(8584):532–533. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(88)91325-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mahboubi E., Kmet J., Cook P. J., Day N. E., Ghadirian P., Salmasizadeh S. Oesophageal cancer studies in the Caspian Littoral of Iran: the Caspian cancer registry. Br J Cancer. 1973 Sep;28(3):197–214. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1973.138. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rios-Castellanos E., Sitas F., Shepherd N. A., Jewell D. P. Changing pattern of gastric cancer in Oxfordshire. Gut. 1992 Oct;33(10):1312–1317. doi: 10.1136/gut.33.10.1312. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]