ABU DHABI // Emiratis are cutting their survival chances by more than half by not going for colon cancer screening.
As a result, many have died from an easily preventable disease that has an almost 100 per cent survival rate if detected early.
Consultant surgeon Dr Majid Bassuni said most of his patients present when the cancer has reached its latest stages despite a national programme that offers free screening for Emiratis and expatriates aged 40 and over.
According to Health Authority Abu Dhabi (Haad), colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer in the emirate after breast cancer, accounting for 8 per cent of all cases. The figures show that 85 per cent of cases are in patients aged 40 years and older, and the majority are presenting in advanced stages of the disease. Worldwide incidence rates are 1 in 50.
“One in 50 people are at risk of having colon cancer at one stage in their life,” said Dr Bassuni. “This risk increases with age.
“Screening detects conditions in the colon (polyps) before they become cancer.”
The Haad screening programme in Abu Dhabi begins at age 40 but in western countries screening is offered at about 60.
“Statistics show that in the West the risk of colon cancer is at the age of 60 but here in the UAE it’s 40. There are many factors and mainly because in the UAE there is an interception of genes,” said Dr Bassuni.
“The Gulf is full of Portuguese blood that mixed with the natives of this region and produced new genes that made some diseases prevalent in the UAE or start at a younger age.”
Yet despite the screening and numerous campaigns, the “uptake is low”, Dr Bassuni said, blaming a lack of awareness and a stigma surrounding cancer.
“The attitude I get from talking to patients is, ‘I don’t want to know about the colon’. There is also an understanding that they will die if they have cancer, so why bother? What we are trying to tell them is that you will not die and the purpose of the screening is not to treat you for cancer but to prevent it,” he said.
If the condition is detected early, 100 per cent of people survive. At stage 1 it is 99 per cent; stage 2 – meaning it has extended just outside the intestine – then it is 80 per cent; stage 3, meaning that the cancer is outside the intestine, survival rates drop to 65 to 70 per cent and patients will need other forms of treatment such as chemotherapy.
“They always come to me in the last stages, when there is pain or can’t pass a stool. They only come when it’s late and the survival is never more than 40 per cent,” Dr Bassuni said.
Colon cancer “doesn’t show any signs. The problem is people wait to be symptomatic and then come forward and by then it’s too late. The culture here is ‘if it doesn’t hurt then I don’t want to know’”.
Ahmed Al Katheiri, a 31-year-old Emirati, discovered this the hard way.
“We lost the most precious person in our lives – our mother,” he said. She died a few years ago at the age of 50 because of colon cancer. She only went to the doctor when she couldn’t pass a stool and her stomach was bloated.” By then, the father of three said, “it was too late and the cancer had spread”. After five years of treatment and chemotherapy, she died in 2012. The family of 15 then got screened.
“People who have relatives with colon cancer are at higher risk,” said Dr Bassuni.
Mr Al Katheiri said his family will continue to get screened and, “I have told all my friends and colleagues at work to get screened. It’s unfortunate that I had to lose my mother to know how important it is”.
Emirati Ahmed Awad is 41 and works at a government entity. Aside from his father, he does not know anyone who has gone for a colonoscopy.
“Of course not,” he said. “I would never do a colonoscopy. If I have symptoms then I’ll see a doctor. Why should I go now if there is nothing wrong?”
Amna Al Romaithy, 39, had a similar sentiment when she said: “If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. If I was meant to get colon cancer then it was meant to be. Why should I go looking for something? It’s like I am asking for it.”
These are the misconceptions that many have and it must be changed, Dr Bassuni said.
“We need awareness. There is a lot of work being done in the Emirates but we need it every day at every school and university. We don’t want to scare the public but colon cancer is preventable,” he said.
salnuwais@thenational.ae
