Breast Cancer in the Bahamas in 2009–2011

Abstract

BACKGROUNDBreast cancer is the most common form of cancer affecting women in the Bahamas, which consists of many islands. This is the first attempt to identify which island has the highest occurrence of breast cancer.OBJECTIVEThe aim of this study was to describe the sociodemographical and spatial features of breast cancer in the Bahamas in 2009–2011.METHODSA review of the medical records of all women with a confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer during the period January 1, 2009–December 31, 2011, was undertaken. Data were first obtained from the National Oncology Board of the Bahamas and validated by a review of the medical records. The patient address was geocoded and mapped using ArcGIS 10.0 Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) to satellite images obtained from The Nature Conservancy in the Bahamas.RESULTSWe recruited 270 patients who satisfied the entry criteria. The cumulative incidences of breast cancer for the years 2009–2011 were 51.4, 45.4, and 51.4, respectively. Breast cancer occurred most often in women of African origin with a mean age at diagnosis of 56.6 ± 13.8 years. Ductal carcinoma was the most common histological type observed with most cancers occurring in Grade II or higher and presenting as late stage (≥ Stage II). Surgery was the preferred method of treatment with modified radical mastectomy being the procedure of choice. Spatial distribution of cases across the Bahamas revealed one cluster, which is present on the island of New Providence. Further analysis of New Providence showed a consistently skewed kernel density in the central and eastern regions, compared with a scattered distribution in the southern and western regions.CONCLUSIONThe island of New Providence had the highest occurrence of breast cancer among all the islands of the Bahamas. The increasing incidence of breast cancer in young women is likely to impose a significant burden on the future of Bahamian health care.

Breast Cancer Research in the Caribbean: Analysis of Reports From 1975 to 2017

“…Eighteen publications described clinicopathologic features of women from seven Caribbean countries (the Bahamas, Cuba, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suriname, and Trinidad). 51-67,105 The most common histologic type was infiltrating ductal carcinoma. For countries that reported staging data, stage ≥ 2 at presentation was reported in the Bahamas, 51 Jamaica, 54,56 and Trinidad.…”

“…51-67,105 The most common histologic type was infiltrating ductal carcinoma. For countries that reported staging data, stage ≥ 2 at presentation was reported in the Bahamas, 51 Jamaica, 54,56 and Trinidad. 67 In contrast, one study in Puerto Rico reported that 88.9% of patients presented with stage I to III and T1/T2 BC.…”

Stage at diagnosis and stage-specific survival of breast cancer in Latin America and the Caribbean: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The high heterogeneity in this analysis was explained by the type of study, with studies that used consecutive sampling presenting a higher proportion of late-stage diagnosis than population-based studies. Only four population-based studies with 837 women were included, and of those, two were the single representatives of their countries (Barbados [32] and Bahamas [33]), and the other two were one of two studies included from Argentina [34] and Cuba [30]. Other variables likely to be related to the stage at diagnosis, such as school years, socioeconomic status and race, could not be evaluated because few studies reported them to allow comparability.…”

Exploring science relevancy by gender and SES in The Bahamas: secondary Bahamian students' interests in science and attractive attributes of future careers

“…Further, the interest indicated by females for the medical items in this study (e.g. cancer, infectious diseases, and reproductive health) mirror both past and present clinical issues experienced by Bahamian women (Cox, 1997;Figueroa, 2014;Mungrue et al, 2016;Trottier et al, 2016). This finding coupled with Ainsley and Ainsley's (2011b) scholarship indicates that further research is warranted to understand how The Bahamas' history and culture uniquely contribute to girls' perceptions of and interests in these specific areas of human biology and medicine, and why physical science and technology (preferred by their male counterparts) are largely eschewed by female Bahamian students.…”