+44-7360-538437- Biomedical Research (2008) Volume 19, Issue 3
An epidemiological evaluation on cancer in the province of Burdur,Turkey
For Turkey, the cancer registration record systems were started only recently. That’s why, it’s very hard to find the reliable information. In our, we aimed to find out not only the reasons of cancer related deaths; when, where these deaths happened, when and where they were diagnosed, ways of medical and alternate treatment but also the inside and outside situation of the person’s house, such as telephone, water, electricity, water closet. Five percent of the city total population was selected in Burdur as target points to be tested (n=11753) and the questionnaire was applied to 11904 people. Before applying the questionnaire, Burdur’s Health Vice President gave an educational seminar to midwives and education information booklets were handed out to all of the midwives applied. There were 22 questions in total and if there were no cancer sign, some of the questions were skipped. The number of people taking part in the research was 11904, 49% of whom were men and 51% women. Their average age was 34.4±21.3. 56.4% of the families lived in cities and 56.8% of them were married. The number of men having no social insurance was larger than that of women. 39.7% of the participants smoked and 15.1% had chronical disease. 77 of the participants had cancer themselves (0.6%). The most common cancer was prostate for men and breast for women, the percentages being 28.3% and 25.8% consecutively. The percentage of people who were diagnosed following a biopsy was 71.4%. The patients had had cancer for around 5.50±8.47(SD) years. 94.8% of the patients received treatment. Most common method of treatment was combined therapy (surgery+chemotherapy) with a per-centage of 29.9. 19.5% of the patients used herbal therapy with a percentage of 15.6. The cancer prevalence in the province of Burdur is 0.6% with breast cancer as the most common type of cancer among women, and prostate cancer the most common type among men. It has been determined that one in every five cancer patient consults to other treatment methods beyond medicine.
Author(s): A.N. Ki?io?lu, E. Uskun, A.S. Kilinç, E. Uzun, H.S. Co?kun, T. Nayir, K. Öngel