Oral cancer in Myanmar: a preliminary survey based on hospital-based cancer registries

Abstract

The occurrence of oral cancer is not clearly known in Myanmar, where betel quid chewing habits are widely spread. Since betel quid chewing has been considered to be one of the important causative factors for oral cancer, the circumstantial situation for oral cancer should be investigated in this country. We surveyed oral cancer cases as well as whole body cancers from two cancer registries from Yangon and Mandalay cities, both of which have representative referral hospitals in Myanmar, and we showed that oral cancer stood at the 6th position in males and 10th in females, contributing to 3.5% of whole body cancers. There was a male predominance with a ratio of 2.1:1. Their most frequent site was the tongue, followed by the palate, which was different from that in other countries with betel quid chewing habits. About 90% of male and 44% of female patients had habitual backgrounds of chewing and smoking for more than 15 years. The results revealed for the first time reliable oral cancer frequencies in Myanmar, suggesting that longstanding chewing and smoking habits are etiological backgrounds for oral cancer patients.

Oral and pharyngeal cancers in Yemen: a retrospective study

“…In agreement with reports from Yemen [12,18,19], Saudi Arabia [23], Kuwait [27], Myanmar [25] and many other developed and developing countries [3], the tongue was the most affected oral subsite in men and women. Differences between regions have been reported however.…”

“…Unexpectedly, the relative frequency of pharyngeal cancer was higher compared with other reports from Yemen [12][13][14]18] and other countries [7,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Nasopharyngeal cancer, which accounted for more than 89% of the pharyngeal cancers in the present study, is relatively common among Iraqi [21] and western North African men [30] and among the Chinese [5].…”

“…In support of GLOBO-CAN estimations [21] and other reports [3,[22][23][24], the relative frequency of oral cancer in Yemen was higher compared with many other developed countries and indeed other Arab countries. However, it was still much lower compared with data from Myanmar [25], Pakistan [7] and India [26]. The widespread habit of betel quid chewing within Asian populations, in addition to smoking tobacco, alcohol consumption and poor oral hygiene, have been associated with high incidences of oral cancer [8,9].…”

Ten-year analysis of oral cancer focusing on young people in northern Thailand

“…The most common site of OSCC in both age groups in our study was the tongue, which is in agreement with the findings of many previous studies (14,15,23,29,30). This result is also in line with the analysis from multinational cancer registries in both developed and developing countries in all regions of the world except for south-central Asia, where the most common sites were found to be the gingiva and buccal mucosa (1).…”

“…Accordingly, some studies have reported that the tumor site is related to specific risk factors (5,6,15,18,(30)(31)(32). Tumors of the tongue and the floor of the mouth may be associated with excessive alcohol consumption and cigarette-smoking habits (1,6,29,32), whereas lesions on the buccal mucosa and gingiva may be related to tobacco/betel quid chewing habits (1,6,18,30). Taken together, these factors could explain the low percentages of tumors on the gingiva and buccal mucosa in the young group in our study.…”