The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL kvirgil@tribunemedia.net A LOCAL doctor is calling on the government to create legislation allowing for everyone diagnosed with cancer to be recorded in a national database. Princess Margaret Hospital oncologist Dr DuVaughn Curling said many of the unanswered questions about the prevalence of cancer in the Bahamas could be tackled if specific information was kept in a central location. Dr Curling said new laws should obligate doctors to report to a central body anyone who is diagnosed any type of cancer. He said: "We have a hospital-based registry, so that anything that comes into Princess Margaret gets placed into the database. We don't have the ability to pop up and say 'I want all of the cancers in Andros this year'. "With the public registry here, we have the ability to do that when the information is recorded, but that's just for the patients that come in to PMH." Without such a central resource, Dr Curling, said "we are never going to be able to say what the actual complete incidence of breast cancer or prostate cancer is". Dr Curling explained that there is no system in place to conduct research according to demographics. He said: "If I want data for all of the women between 18 and 50 on Cat Island that got diagnosed with colon cancer in the past five years, I should be able to type that, click a button and it comes up. "That is the only way that we will be able to address the specific needs and identify the cluster areas of where there might be some problems." According to Dr Curling, such legislation exists for persons diagnosed with HIV and syphilis. It has been estimated that 34 per cent of Bahamian breast cancer sufferers are diagnosed at 44 years old or younger, compared to only 12 per cent of American women in the same age range. This means one in every three women diagnosed with breast cancer in the Bahamas will be diagnosed before the age of 50.