Esophagus Cancer Rate Drops Drastically in China's Most Prevalent Area: Report
Posted on: Tuesday, 27 September 2005, 09:00 CDT
Esophagus cancer rate drops drastically in China's most prevalent area: report
ZHENGZHOU, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The incidence of esophageal cancer can be greatly reduced through comprehensive prevention and medical intervention measures, a crew of Chinese and US researchers has found after 20 years of study.
Those comprehensive measures include changes in dietary and living habits, drinking water quality improvement, and the increase of certain nutrients together with moldproof, amine removal and hyperplasia treatment, said Dr. Qiao Youlin, a Chinese expert participating in the Sino-US project, which was launched in 1984 in Linzhou city in central China's Henan Province.
The incidence of esophageal cancer, the seventh most common cancer worldwide, has decline to the current 90 from 120 cases per 100,000 persons ten years ago in Linzhou, the Chinese area where the disease is most prevalent, the researchers found.
Locals were told by researchers to give up their centuries-old love of pickled cabbage, which is seen by some to be one factor accountable for the high prevalence of esophagus cancer.
Dr. Qiao said his peers, including medical experts from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the United States, completed a nutrients intervention test in Linzhou to explore the anti-cancer effect of selenium and various vitamins.
"I hope we can find through our cooperation a less painful and simpler early diagnostic method for patients," Dr. Qiao said.
Though diagnosis and treatment at early stages can rescue the lives of about one third of esophageal cancer patients, few people are willing to have an esophagus cancer diagnosis before showing symptoms like difficulty in swallowing, regurgitation, heartburn, weight loss, vomiting blood or chest pain because of the intolerably painful current examinations.
Experts say many of those patients loses the best chance for treatment.
In the United States, squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus is strongly associated with tobacco and alcohol abuse. The risk declines with smoking cessation. In China, esophageal cancer is associated with deficiencies of nutrients such as retinol, riboflavin, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, ascorbate, and zinc, and with exposure to specific carcinogens, according to the NCI.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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