Costa Rica registers at least 9,000 new patients each year which approximately is 196 per 100,000 compared to USA with 300 per 100,000 (World Cancer Research Fund)
This disease was the cause of death of4244 people last year, especially gastric, lung, breast, cervix and prostate, reported physician Bernardo Luis Saenz.
Saenz, who is the director of the project to strengthen comprehensive cancer care for Costa Rican Social Security, said “there is a growing trend in cancer mortality”, and that the deaths have increased 24% since 2000.
The incidence of the disease was also up 17% from 2000 to 2008, from a rate of 185 to 217 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
According Sáenz, there are important epidemiological differences by gender. For example, there are more female patients, but mortality is higher among men.
Skin cancers (21%), breast (19%), cervix (13%) and thyroid (7%) are the most common among Costa Ricans, but the most lives is charged including breast, stomach, colon and cervix.
For men, the highest incidence of prostate cancer (24%), skin (24%), stomach (10%) and colon (4%), but in them the most deadly types of tumors are prostate, stomach, lung and liver.
Health authorities in Costa Rica emphasized that in the last 12 years the stomach cancer and cervical cancer have decreased their impact on mortality, and in the meantime, new challenges have emerged with increased breast, colon and prostate .
The executive director of the Social Security Fund (CCSS), Ileana Balmaceda, explained that the vast majority of cancer patients are diagnosed and treated by the centers of public health system.
Each year the CCSS invests over $ 161 million in care of this evil, he said, and the drugs alone spends $ 73,500 daily institution.
“Cancer is a priority issue for Social Security. Every hour this country spends more than $ 18,000 in the comprehensive care of these patients,” said Balmaceda.
The president stressed that the Fund, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in three cancer cases can be cured with proper treatment, and one in three is preventable, so called for the people to maintain healthy lifestyles and avoid falling into risk factors such as smoking.
EFE
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San José Costa Rica
