Hospital incidence of cancer among Filipinos

ABSTRACT

1. During the fiver-year period of this survey (1941-1945), 3,531 tumors were examined and studied at the Cancer Institute of the Philippine General Hospital and the Pathological Laboratory of St. Lukes Hospital, one of the 117,546 admissions. Of these tumors, 2,163 (1.84%) were malignant or cancers, and 1,368 (1.16%) were benign tumors2. Malignant epithelial tumors or carcinomas comprise 1,653 (76.4%), 325 (15%) were sarcomas and 185 (8.6%) were special cancers3. Two out of every 100 persons admitted to the Philippine General Hospital and St. Lukes Hospital suffered from cancer. Following the computation in New York City, 1 out of every 200 deaths in Manila ought to be from cancer4. The distribution of the malignant growths in the different systems and organs of the body is instructive. It gives the different specialists in our country a basis for noting the organs that are more prone to cancer5. The high incidence of cancer of the breast, cervix, ovary and uterus is in accord with the findings in temperate countries; but the high frequency of cancer of the cheek, lymph nodes (sarcoma), nasopharynx, chorioepitheliomas, and primary cancer of the liver (hepatomas) is quite at variance with the findings in temperate countries6. The peak of cancer incidence among the Filipinos is between 40 and 50 years. This peak comes earlier than in temperate countries, when it is from 55 to 647. This first sudden increase in cancer among Filipinos begins at 26 years and shows an abrupt diminution at 70 years8. Of all malignant tumors in this series 1,366 (63.2%) were in females, 797 (36.8%) in males-or a ratio of 3 women to 2 men9. At the ealier age period, 26 to 60, the cancer incidence is higher among women than among men; but from 61 to 90, the reverse is true-the incidence is higher among men than among women10. This series shows a definitely high incidence of carcinoma of the inner cheek, hepatomas, and chorioepitheliomas-higher than in American Hospitals11. This paper aims to start a reliable and systematic body of cancer statistics in the Philippines from the records of hospital patients. Its goal is the organization of cancer clinics in city and provincial hospitals, from which more accurate data on cancer in the Philippines could be complied12. The establishment of cancer control under a Cancer Institute, as the one organized in the Philippine General Hospital in 1941, is imperative. With the cooperation of our Public Health Service, now supervising the provincial hospitals, and with the aid of a Tumor Registry, a standardized and well classified nomeclature of cancer incidence in the Philippines could be formulated13. As cancer statistics depends much upon biopsies and autopsies, these two phases of medical education should be encouraged in hospitals and medical schools14. The induction in our medical practice of modern scopes such as the cystoscope, the peritonescope, the proctoscope, the gastroscope, and the bronchoscope for objective diagnosis and biopsies would improve our means of diagnosis, not only for cancer, but also for parasitic or bacterial diseases that are more common in our tropical country15. The organization of cancer clinics in our general hospitals consisting of a surgeon, a radiologist, and a pathologist, to deliberate on all cancer cases irrespective of the departments concerned, should be affected to bring about a closer coordination in the diagnosis and treatment of the cancer patients. (Summary)