Prevalence of Prostate Cancer Relatively High in St. Kitts
By: Chaïra Flanders
St. Kitts is one of the islands in the region with a higher number of men being diagnosed with Prostate Cancer.
That’s according to Urologist, Dr. Dwayne Thwaites who was at the time sharing health tips on the Radio programme “Health Matters on ZIZ Radio.
He said, “The prevalence is very high in St. Kitts. One of the things that we looked at and we looked at the whole Caribbean on a whole. We’ve done a lot of screening, 13 years Nevis, 13 years in Antigua and we noticed a decrease in the prevalence, we’ve noticed that what we are seeing now, the early stage of the disease we pick them up. What we are noticing in St. Kitts is that the more men we see, its the more disease we are seeing.”
Dr. Thwaites also explained that the numbers in St. Kitts are relatively similar to the high numbers in Jamaica.
‘The disease is very prevalent in Jamaica. The incidence is way too high. Tobago also has a high incidence of prostate cancer. One of the first studies that was done was done out of Tobago with a group out of Pittsburgh and most Tobagonians are of East African descent and we realize that the genetics of East African descent and we realize that the genetics has made it look like there is a rise in prostate cancer in that population. I don’t know the exact descent in St. Kitts but I know that the rates of Prostate Cancer in St. Kitts is comparable to Jamaica which is very high”, the Urologist explained.
He said the World Health Organization advises that many Caribbean men should take advantage of the early screening on a yearly basis considering that they are living in high risk population.
He also noted that there has been a significant decrease in detrimental cases of prostate cancer on Nevis in comparison to St. Kitts. These results, he said, are a result of a greater number of men opting for early screening.