Breast cancer in Jamaica

WESTERN BUREAU:

BREAST CANCER is the most common cancer in women worldwide with approximately one million new cases diagnosed each year. Figures from the Jamaica Cancer Registry show that this form of cancer has been the most prevalent in Jamaican women for at least the past four decades.

The latest figures show that it accounts for just over one-quarter of all cancers in Jamaican women with most cases occurring between the ages of 25 and 59 years.

The major risk factors for the development of breast cancer are:

Increasing age-the risk doubles about every 10 years until menopause;

Family history of breast cancer in close relatives;

History of previous breast disease;

Factors leading to increased exposure to oestrogen e.g. early age of onset of menstruation or late menopause;

Geographic factors... living in a developed country and;

Certain dietary factors, e.g. high fat intake.

Breast cancer can be detected through screening mammography, which in first world countries has helped to dramatically reduce the mortality rate of the disease. The diagnosis of cancer is established by Biopsy that entails sampling the abnormal area of the breast for microscopic examination by pathologists.

There are currently a variety of treatment options available for the management of patients with breast cancer, the choice of which largely depends on the degree to which the tumour has spread, e.g. patients with a small tumour that has not spread beyond the breast may require Radiotherapy, whereas patients with tumours that has spread to involve other organs such as the lymph glands, lung or bone may require chemotherapy.

There are very little data available locally concerning the development of breast cancer in our women, or the optimal treatment strategies that should be employed. It is apparent from the preliminary data emerging from the USA about breast cancer in African-American women that the course of the disease is different from that seen in white women, hence the danger in attempting to extrapolate information directly from studies that are based on white populations for use in the assessment and management of our mixed patients of predominantly mixed race.

Information received from the Jamaica Cancer Society and an article written by Dr. Suzanne Shirley, Lecturer & Consultant Pathologist Department of Pathology, UWI.

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