Cancer in the DR

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ju10prd

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acento.com.do/2015/actualidad/8253561-cancer-afecta-a-medio-millon-en-republica-dominicana/ - Translator

With a half a million people in DR infected with cancer and 13,000 new cases annually, the country clearly has a problem.

Smoking, obesity and bad diet are doubtless factors.

The diet is clearly bad if all we read is correct with so much fried and roasted food especially meat with fat and skin included. To add to that the lack of consumption of fruits and vegetables is striking in a country abundant with the such containing so many anti-oxidents.

I personally now Dominicans who have succumbed to throat and bowel cancer and it is not nice knowing the lack of best treatment available, especially the fact that the cost of such treatment is not affordable to most. So they take their pain killers and die.
 
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donP

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Food for Cancer

ju10prd said:
.... consumption of fruits and vegetables (...) abundant with the such containing so many anti-oxidents.
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Anti-oxidants... very well.
What they, however, most likely also have is an abundance of pesticides, herbicides and high residues of artificial fertilizers.
The Dominican agricultural products are hardly ever checked for such cancerogenous contents.

In other countries the food control authorities would not allow this stuff to reach the market.

In the 'barrios' they love to burn plastic (producing highly cancerogenous smoke) to keep of mosquitoes.
Clever, isn't it?

donP
 
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Criss Colon

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Environment plays a part, but Africans have a genetic propensity for cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
They brought this with them to the DR.

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the gorgon

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ju10prd said:
acento.com.do/2015/actualidad/8253561-cancer-afecta-a-medio-millon-en-republica-dominicana/ - Translator

With a half a million people in DR infected with cancer and 13,000 new cases annually, the country clearly has a problem.

Smoking, obesity and bad diet are doubtless factors.

The diet is clearly bad if all we read is correct with so much fried and roasted food especially meat with fat and skin included. To add to that the lack of consumption of fruits and vegetables is striking in a country abundant with the such containing so many anti-oxidents.

I personally now Dominicans who have succumbed to throat and bowel cancer and it is not nice knowing the lack of best treatment available, especially the fact that the cost of such treatment is not affordable to most. So they take their pain killers and die.
Click to expand...

i do not think that smoking is a significant contributing factor, because , from my observations, very few Dominicans smoke.
 
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the gorgon

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donP said:
Anti-oxidants... very well.
What they, however, most likely also have is an abundance of pesticides, herbicides and high residues of artificial fertilizers.
The Dominican agricultural products are hardly ever checked for such cancerogenous contents.

In other countries the food control authorities would not allow this stuff to reach the market.

In the 'barrios' they love to burn plastic (producing highly cancerogenous smoke) to keep of mosquitoes.
Clever, isn't it?

donP
Click to expand...

there is no such thing in the DR as a watchdog agency whose job is to protect the poor. nobody is going to take any action against the merchant classes who poison the masses. jeepetas cost money.

as to obesity...they better figure out that problem soon. i have never seen so many fat people in one area, and it is getting worse. there has to be something cultural with the diet, because an article surfaced recently which said that Dominicans are the most overweight of all ethnic immigrant groups in the city of New York. i remember when an article about the Dominican Day Parade referred to the gorditas that attended.
 
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Kipling333

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good to read so many expert opinions on why Dominicans have a high rate of cancer ..if only the oncologists knew all this ..the DR would be better off .
 
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ju10prd

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the gorgon said:
i do not think that smoking is a significant contributing factor, because , from my observations, very few Dominicans smoke.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. Perhaps I should have referred to the inhalation of carcinogens by way of smoke from bbq's, fires burning rubbish, heulgas burning tyres. used of gas for cooking or should I say frying and exhaust gases, as well as the smokers.

But at least the other day it was announced that smoking would be banned from hospitals which is a good move IMO.
 
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ctrob

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Kipling333 said:
good to read so many expert opinions on why Dominicans have a high rate of cancer ..if only the oncologists knew all this ..the DR would be better off .
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone here would claim to be an expert. And I agree on the plastics, that's the worst stuff ever introduced to our planet.

Propensity for africans to have cancer, I've never heard that one. If true, I guess that wouldn't have been plastics. Anything written on that?
 
NALs

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6094057_f520.jpg


I say the DR doesn't have a cancer epidemic... yet.
 
NALs

NALs

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ctrob said:
I don't think anyone here would claim to be an expert. And I agree on the plastics, that's the worst stuff ever introduced to our planet.

Propensity for africans to have cancer, I've never heard that one. If true, I guess that wouldn't have been plastics. Anything written on that?
Click to expand...
If there is an ancestral genetic connection it would probably be via de European ancestry, but I doubt that's the case for three reasons:

1. On average Dominicans are genetically slightly more Euro than African.

2. DR and Haiti have a similar cancer rate, much higher than most of Africa's but much lower than Western Europe. For the DR one could say that the racial mixture that characterizes most of the population accounts for that midde of the way cancer rate, but Haiti is the least admixed country in this hemisphere and they have a similar cancer rate as the DR and very unlike Africa.

3. Most of Africa has very low cancer rates.

Conclusion, ancestral origin probably has no influence on cancer rates. If there is a genetic connection, its much more at an individual level depending on family lines and their medical history.
 
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the gorgon

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ju10prd said:
I stand corrected. Perhaps I should have referred to the inhalation of carcinogens by way of smoke from bbq's, fires burning rubbish, heulgas burning tyres. used of gas for cooking or should I say frying and exhaust gases, as well as the smokers.

But at least the other day it was announced that smoking would be banned from hospitals which is a good move IMO.
Click to expand...

what shocks me is to watch some of these guys who do the chicken in those 55 gallon drum barbecues starting the fires with things like styrofoam. holy jeezus.
 
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ctrob

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NALs said:
6094057_f520.jpg


I say the DR doesn't have a cancer epidemic... yet.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see a world map that detailed the introduction and degree of usage of plastics for food storage. I'll bet it's fairly close to this one.

I asked my oncologist that very question one time - the introduction of plastics causing an uptick in cancer. He shrugged and said it was possible. I'm guessing he didn't want to commit just in the off chance of somebody starting a lawsuit.
 
M

Mauricio

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What about the preprepared food that we are eating since decades in Europe and the U.S. And more and more is finding its way to the DR. Wouldn't that be a possible cause for hearing more and more about cancer cases lately.

When I lived here 15 years ago you hardly heard about cancer here (unlike Europe). Nowadays I know many people having cancer or have died from it.
 
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ju10prd

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NALs said:
If there is an ancestral genetic connection it would probably be via de European ancestry, but I doubt that's the case for three reasons:

1. On average Dominicans are genetically slightly more Euro than African.

2. DR and Haiti have a similar cancer rate, much higher than most of Africa's but much lower than Western Europe. For the DR one could say that the racial mixture that characterizes most of the population accounts for that midde of the way cancer rate, but Haiti is the least admixed country in this hemisphere and they have a similar cancer rate as the DR and very unlike Africa.

3. Most of Africa has very low cancer rates.

Conclusion, ancestral origin probably has no influence on cancer rates. If there is a genetic connection, its much more at an individual level depending on family lines and their medical history.
Click to expand...

You right when you read the actual statistics, one finds that places like Denmark and France come out top of the table.

I do wonder if the lack of good reliable data is a problem with current statistics?

The article in the OP mentions 500,000 cancer cases in DR. And 13,000 new cases annually. A lot depends on the basis for the incidence rate.......I'm now assuming 13,000 per population annually....rate of 130.

My gut feeling here was that there seem to be more cases of cancer around having lived in a small barrio and hearing of this or that person succumbing to all type of cancer. For which they cannot get treatment due to inhibitive cost so just die of the trauma.

And so my guess is that the incidence rate here is significantly under reported. In that diagnosis at one of the small hospitals may not be accurate and is the incidence rate based upon hospital record or death certification.

And to add, from those same statistics you mention, being Caucasian would be a more likely factor than being of African decent
 
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Matilda

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Much of the cancer problem here is the cost of treatment. My 50 year old neighbour has been diagnosed with plasma myeloma. According to this website Plasma Cell Neoplasms (Including Multiple Myeloma) Treatment - National Cancer Institute. being black increases the risk factors. Her kidneys have now failed and although the cancer is curable, she needs chemotherapy at US$4000 a month for 10 months. Impossible to find that sort of money, so the chances are she will die in a few months. She has insurance but it cannot pay out at that level.

Matilda
 
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