Cancer in the sindhi population of greater bombay

Abstract

The Sindhis are a Hindu subgroup identified by their place of origin and their written spoken language. These are the people who were originally inhabitants of the Province of Sind, which formed a part of the large Bombay Presidency in Undivided India before 1947. The Sindhi Hindus migrated en masse to India after partition. An attempt has been made here to examine the differences found in the site-specific cancer risks among the Sindhi community, the other Hindu groups (such as the Marathi and Gujrati populations) and the Parsi community of Greater Bombay. As the Indian Census Board does not provide age distribution details for the Sindhis, analysis of the data was undertaken employing frequency ratios. Age-standardized cancer ratios (ASCAR) were also utilized for certain calculations. The common sites of cancer appear to vary greatly between the total Bombay population and the Sindhi group. In Sindhi men, for example, cancers of the lung, large bowel, prostate, kidneys and leukemias are most commmonly seen, whereas laryngeal and oesophageal cancers predominate in the general population of Bombay. In Sindhi women the breast, uterus, ovary, and skin are the preferred sites, whereas cancers of the cervix and leukemias are predominant in the general population of Bombay. It is interesting to note that there is a degree of similarity in the incidence of cancer at certain anatomical sites, such as the prostate, large intestine, and leukemias in males, and breast, cervix, ovary and uterus in females, between the Sindhi and Parsi communities of Greater Bombay.

Epidemiology of cancer of the cervix in greater bombay

“…While collecting the required information relating to incidence and epidemiology, the language spoken by each cancer patient was also noted. The total number of new cancer cases and the distribution amongst the different linguistic groups of the cervical cancer patients is presented in Table V. Cancer of the cervix is predominantly a disease of married women, occurring especially in those who marry at an early age and bear a large number of children [6]. Whatever the influences that marital status, active sexual life, and child bearing may have on the eventual development of cervical cancer, the suspect factors apparently begin to exert their action at a much earlier age.…”

Ambient levels of benzene in Mumbai city

“…Health data specifically for these classes of people is not available hence an overall indication of cancer incidence may be considered as one of the factors indicating health impact due to exposure to high benzene levels. In Mumbai cancer incidences (Leukemia) have been found to be increasing (Jussawalla et al 1996(Jussawalla et al -2000.…”

Inhibitory effects of phenolics, teas and saliva on the formation of mutagenic nitrosation products of salted fish

“…Does epidemiological evidence support such a conclusion? High mortality rates due to esophageal carcinomas were seen in Japanese population groups with a high consumption of tea gruel (Segi, 1975;Hirayama, 1979;Shimizu et al, 1980), amoilg Caribbean island residents accustomed to drinking a great variety of tanninkatechinrich herbal teas (Morton, 1972;Kapadia et al, 1983), matte-drinking gauchos of Argentina and Brazil (Prudente, 1963), chewers of phenolic-containing betel nuts (Jayant et al, 1977;Jussawalla and Deshpande, 1971;Jussawalla et al, 1980), and heavy consumers of strong teas ingested at excessive temperatures in Kazakhstan, USSR (Kolicheva, 1980) or in the Caspian region of Iran (Joint Iran-IARC Study Group, 1977). Compared to the high incidence of esophageal cancers among groups consuming excessive amounts of phenolic-containing items, the mortality rates for stomach cancers are relatively low, as in the case of tea gruel-eating Japanese (Segi, 1975), betel quid-chewing Gujratis (Jussawalla et al, 1980), and the populations of several industrialized countries with high tea consumption (Stocks, 1970).…”