GANGTOK, August 30: Standing at alarming ratio, the Sikkimese Bhutia community has shown a high incidence of cancer topping the list of cancer patients amongst all the ethnic communities of Sikkim, a survey on 2000 cases of cancer patients recorded in Sikkim has revealed.
The population of the Bhutia community in Sikkim stands to 76076 as per the State Socio Economic Survey of 2006.
The database on the 2000 cases of cancer patients which propped the above ethnic community in the pole position has been prepared on the basis of five years long survey conducted in Sikkim under National Cancer Registry Programme of Indian Council of Medical Research.
The survey reveals that the males of the Bhutia community are more prone to stomach and esophagus cancer while females suffer from cervix and stomach cancer. The data have been collected from various sources of registrations like STNM, CRH, Birth and Deaths records, district hospitals, primary health centres and private clinics.
It is already known fact the Mongoloid people have more cancer cases in the world.
Apart from racial habits, consumption of tobacco by people is panned as the main reason for cancer proliferation in the world.
The commonest forms of cancer prevalent in Sikkim were stomach, lungs, liver, breast and oesophagus. Not surprisingly, the Bhutia community tops the charts in all the forms as per the study.
Dr. Yogesh Verma, the chief consultant of STNM hospital told media that the survey was conducted from the year 2003-2007.
The ratio reveals 41 Bhutia: 4 other communities of the stomach cancer patient in Sikkim. Similarly for esophagus the ratio is 15: 4 patients and 12:3 for the liver cancer.
However every year 400 people are getting prone to various kinds of cancers, the report says.
Dr. Verma had made a presentation in the recently concluded 31st Annual Scientific meeting of the International Agency for Research on Cancer held at New Orland.
Since we got a data of the ethnic group of Sikkim from the Department of Evaluation, Survey, Monitoring and Evaluation (DESME) the job of classifying the cancer patients as per the ethnicity was an easy job, said Dr. Verma. He added though the alarming prevalence of cancer in Bhutia community is yet to be found out, the issue is being taken to the research institutions worldwide to find out the exact reason. More research has to be conducted on why a particular community is more vulnerable to cancer, he added.
‘At the moment no evidence based information on the cancer have been found’, Dr. Verma added. He also stressed on the point that the further studies leading to this variation is needed to be done.
Dr. Verma expressed his doubts that the genetic mechanism and the food habit such as eating smoked meat and fungal contamination foods such as Churpi may be the two reasons for the high prevalence cancer in the Bhutia community.
Since that the government has finished preparing the data base of the cancer patients in Sikkim now it will come into action understanding its perspective in a practical way, Dr Verma said.
Experts have opined that an effective cancer screening people programme has to be placed in Sikkim for early detection of cancer.
