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. 2018 Jul 4;18(1):712.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-018-4625-x.

Cancer incidence and mortality rates and trends in Trinidad and Tobago

Affiliations

Cancer incidence and mortality rates and trends in Trinidad and Tobago

Wayne A Warner et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the Caribbean, including the islands of Trinidad and Tobago (TT). The population of TT consists of over 1.3 million people with diverse ancestral and sociocultural backgrounds, both of which may influence cancer incidence and mortality. The objective of this study was to examine incidence and mortality patterns and trends in TT.

Methods: Cancer surveillance data on 29,512 incident cancer cases reported to the Dr. Elizabeth Quamina Cancer Registry (population-based cancer registry of TT) between 1995 and 2009 were analyzed. Age-standardized rates, overall and by sex, ancestry, and geography, were reported.

Results: The highest incidence and mortality rates were observed for cancers related to reproductive organs in women, namely, breast, cervical, and uterine cancers, and prostate, lung and colorectal cancers among men. Average incidence rates were highest in areas covered by the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) (188 per 100,000), while average mortality rates were highest in areas covered by the North West Regional Health Authority (108 per 100,000). Nationals of African ancestry exhibited the highest rates of cancer incidence (243 per 100,000) and mortality (156 per 100,000) compared to their counterparts who were of East Indian (incidence, 125 per 100,000; mortality, 66 per 100,000) or mixed ancestry (incidence, 119 per 100,000; mortality, 66 per 100,000).

Conclusions: Our findings highlight the need for national investment to improve the understanding of the epidemiology of cancer in Trinidad and Tobago, and to ultimately guide much needed cancer prevention and control initiatives in the near future.

Keywords: Cancer in populations of African ancestry; Cancer in populations of Indian ancestry; Cancer incidence; Cancer mortality; Cancer surveillance; Caribbean; Trinidad and Tobago.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

There were two data sources included in this study. It is the policy of the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Registry to provide de-identified data to investigators for research purposes. As such we requested and obtained the cancer surveillance data (de-identified data) used in this study from the registry. The Census data used is from a publicly-available source, which is found on the website of the Trinidad and Tobago Central Statistical Office. This study received ethical review exemptions from the Institutional Review Boards of Washington University School of Medicine, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and California State University, Los Angeles as only de-identified data were used.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trends in rates for selected cancers by sex, Trinidad and Tobago, 1995 to 2009. Rates are age adjusted to the 1960 world standard population. a, b incidence and mortality cancer rates for men and (c, d) incidence and mortality cancer rates for women
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Geospatial maps of cancer incidence and mortality rates in Trinidad and Tobago 1995–2009: (Top panel, left to right) Age-standardized incidence rates for all (a) Regional Health Authorities and (b) Corporations, and age-standardized mortality rates for all (c) Regional Health Authorities and (d) Corporations. Rates are age adjusted to the 1960 world standard population. H, Hospital
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Overall cancer incidence and mortality rates in Trinidad and Tobago by ancestry, 1995–2009. Rates are age adjusted to the 1960 world standard population
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Age-standardized incidence and mortality rates for the leading cancer sites by sex (a-e, male; f-j, female), ancestry (purple, African ancestry; orange, Indian ancestry; gray, Mixed ancestry), and age groups, Trinidad and Tobago, 1995–2009. All bars are uniformly scaled. Data for persons under 24 are presented in Additional file 2: Table S2
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Stage distribution of selected cancers by sex, Trinidad and Tobago, 1995–2009. Stage categories may not sum to 100% because of rounding

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