This article is part of the supplement: Second Annual International African-Caribbean Cancer Consortium Conference .

Proceedings

Ethnicity and cancer in Guyana, South America

Wallis S Best Plummer , Premini Persaud and Penelope J Layne

The Cancer Registry of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana

author email corresponding author email

Infectious Agents and Cancer 2009, 4(Suppl 1):S7doi:10.1186/1750-9378-4-S1-S7

Published:	10 February 2009

Abstract

Background

The Cancer Registry of Guyana, a population-based registry was established in 2000. Over the past eight years, data has been collected from the national referral hospital and other public and private institutions.

Methods

A comprehensive review of the Registry's database was undertaken, focusing on the ethnic and site prevalence of the three major reported cancers. The data was then subjected to summary statistics and the frequencies of cases by ethnicity and age-group were subjected to chi squared analysis. A 0.05 level of significance was applied to all tests.

Results

There was a clear ethnic distribution of the three major cancers (breast, cervical and prostate) within the database. Afro-Guyanese men accounted for over 65% of prostate cancers. Among women, Indo-Guyanese presented with the most cases of breast cancer (45%) while Afro-Guyanese had the majority of cervical cancer cases (39%). When the proportion of cervical cancer cases for all cancers in an ethnic group was analysed however, cervical cancer was significantly more common (p < 0.0001) among Indigenous Amerindian women. Similarly, by age-group analysis, there were significantly more cases of cervical than breast cancer (p = 0.014) among women under 30 years of age.

Conclusion

The Cancer Registry of Guyana reflects a high incidence of prostate, cervical and breast cancers among Afro-Guyanese. Socio-economic, dietary and genetic influences on the observed pattern of incidence within this ethnic sub-group, as well as those of Indo-Guyanese and Indigenous Amerindians warrant further investigation.