Late diagnosis causing more cancer deaths in Oman: Expert

Energy Monday 25/July/2016 20:39 PM
By: Times News Service
Late diagnosis causing more cancer deaths in Oman: Expert

Muscat: Cancer deaths are on the rise in Oman, a health expert said, citing a late diagnosis of the disease as the main reason behind it.
Half of the cancer patients in Oman are diagnosed at a later stage, according to Dr Zahid Al Munthiri, senior consultant in the treatment of radiation diseases and the deputy general manager of the Omani Cancer Association.
In Oman, a whopping 50 per cent of cancer cases are discovered at stage three and four, compared with 20 per cent internationally, according to Times of Oman’s sister newspaper Al Shabiba.
Cancer treatment consumes more than 30 per cent of the drug budget of the Royal Hospital, and late-stage cancer patients require more medical care.
In Oman, there are 600 cancer patients for each one million population, Dr. Basim Al Bahrani, director of Oncology and the head of Medical Oncology at the Royal Hospital said earlier this year.
At this rate, by 2040, the Sultanate is likely to expect more than 3,500 cases of cancer every year, according to Al Bahrani.
Al Munthiri said cancer cases, which arrive at the National Registry of Tumours during an early stage, are being treated in a good manner and many patients have fully recovered and are living life normally.
However, the risk of death increases in patients of stage three and four as the virus has already spread in the body.
The latest statistics from the National Oncology Centre showed that the number of visits to outpatient clinics reached 19,103 in 2015, reflecting an increase of 10 per cent from 2014.
Meanwhile, the number of cancer cases detected in Oman stood at 1,314 (1,212 Omanis and 102 expatriates), according to the latest data from the National Registry of Tumours.
The median age of diagnosis was 53 years, while 87 cases were reported among children aged 14 and below, accounting for 7.3 per cent of the total number of patients.
Oman ranks fourth among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations in terms of registered cases of cancer.
Till date, breast cancer is the most common among females, while prostate cancer is the most common cancer among males in Oman. According to the Ministry of Health, cancer is the third leading cause of death in Oman after car accidents and heart disease.
However, lung cancer, a disease in which 97 per cent of those diagnosed are smokers, is expected to become the most common cancer in Oman in the next five years, according to Al Bahrani.