Cancer trends in the Iraqi population during the last twenty years

30 May، 202430 May، 2024 الموقع الالكتروني

Prof. Dr. Atheer Majid Rashid Al-Juhaishi

College of Pharmacy

Cancer is a term used to prescribe a group of deathly-caused diseases that affect many human tissues and organs. It can begin at any part of the body and is made up of trillions of uncontrolled division cells. Each human cell is divided under a controlled process, if this process is destructed, the damaged and abnormal cells will be grown and multiply to form tumors. Thus, these tumors are either cancerogenic tumors (malignant) or non-carcinogenic tumors (benign). The malignant tumors expanded and invaded other surrounding tissues and could travel to distal tissues by a process termed metastasis (Catala-Lopez and Collaboration, 2022). The prevalence of cancer in Iraq is a scary apparition with a rising detection ratio after 2007; thus, the increment rate reached more than 50% after the war. The most common type is breast cancer with an incidence rate reaching 54.09% in 2016, while other types like lung, brain, bladder, and gastrointestinal cancer mainly pancreatic cancer showed sudden appearance after recently (Hussain and Lafta, 2021). These may be attributed to many risk factors including low physical activity due to the availability of amenities and the individual’s purchase of a car as an alternative to walking in completing simple daily tasks has led to an increase in the incidence of obesity (Friedenreich et al., 2021), smoking (Jacob et al., 2018), the increment of contraceptive using by Iraqi women due to deteriorating living condition (Hashim et al., 2021), an unhealthy diet that relies on canned food containing preservatives and flavoring agents to remain them for long periods before eating enhances the development of free radicals that caused mutation and genetic changes (Koriech and Medicine, 1994), the lack of sleep due to the availability of modern technology, including Facebook, Telegram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Researchers found that in individuals who averaged six hours of sleep a night, the risk of colon tumors increased by 50% compared to those who averaged at least seven hours of sleep, when these means were not available, and most Iraqi citizens went to bed early and got enough sleep (Thompson et al., 2011). The expansion of cities and buildings and the shrinking of green areas and orchards led to air pollution and increased toxic substances that the Iraqi citizen inhales have recently been modified in Iraq with no sufficient preventive measures being implemented. In addition to the chemicals found in the weapons used by military operations, it led to the deterioration of health conditions in Iraq and the emergence of many deadly diseases, including cancer (Porcherie et al., 2021).

To overcome this problem, you need to follow many important points including avoiding smoking and breathing air that contains pure oxygen, which can be obtained from increasing green spaces. Cigarette smoke is one of the most important causes of many cancers, including lung, mouth, pancreas, and bladder cancer. Smoking harms not only smokers but also the people who are close to them. Therefore, there must be a designated place for smokers, especially in public facilities (Kispert et al., 2019). Eat healthy food that is rich in fresh vegetables and fruits while the repeated carbohydrates, processed meat, animal fats, and canned food containing preservatives should be limited (Oostindjer et al., 2014). Each individual should do daily physical activity and maintain a healthy body weight. Physical activity is one of the most important advices to reduce the risk of breast, prostate, lung, colon, and kidney cancer. Therefore, Iraqi people are advised to combat at least 150 minutes weekly of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes weekly of cardiac exercise activity (McTiernan et al., 2019). Sun`s rays are one of the most common causes of skin cancer, thus the important advice avoids dorsal sun from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., cover the skin with suitable clothes and wear a head cover and sunglass, and use sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30 and repeated application it every two hours or after swimming or sweating (Hung et al., 2022). Getting vaccination especially hepatitis B vaccine to avoid liver cancer (Chang et al., 2016). Sleep enough and take several measures to overcome anxiety and lack of sleep, including setting an alarm to wake up at the same time on weekdays and weekends, avoiding napping during the day, not using devices to browse social media in bed, and exercising during the day, but not during the short hours. Before bedtime, avoid caffeine after about 3 p.m. (Gu et al., 2016).

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in Iraq, and this may be attributed to several things in addition to the reasons mentioned previously, the reliance on artificial feeding that prevailed after 2003 when a study conducted in Iraq was published that focused on the reasons for the increased incidence of breast cancer and its relationship to the lack of breastfeeding. The study indicated women who breastfeed for more than a year have a lower incidence of breast cancer. Women should be encouraged to breastfeed and undergo periodic examinations for early detection of the disease, especially women who have hormonal disorders and hereditary factors (AL-JUHAISHI et al.).

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