High incidence of oesophageal and gastric cancer in Kashmir in a population with special personal and dietary habits.

Abstract

Over a three year period (1 July 1986 suggesting that the cause is related to environmental factors.It has been suggested from clinical experience that oesophageal and gastric cancer are very prevalent in Kashmir but there are no population based data available on incidence. The present study was conducted to determine the incidence of oesophageal and gastric cancer in Kashmir.

Head and Neck Cancer: Global Burden and Regional Trends in India

“…Fresh and sun-dried vegetables including chillies too have a high nitrate and nitrosamine content. Khuroo et al (1992) further reported that incidence rates for esophageal cancer in Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs was different. On the other hand Yeole et al (2001) reported ASR of cancer of pharynx-esophagus in parsi population to be lower than non-Parsis.…”

Association Between p16, hMLH1 and E-cadherin Promoter Hypermethylation and Intake of Local Hot Salted Tea and Sun-dried Foods in Kashmiris with Gastric Tumors

“…Gastric cancer is the fourth leading cancer worldwide and is endemic in certain Asian countries such as China, Japan, Iran and India. An epidemiological survey conducted on 966 gastric carcinoma patients (789 men and 177 women) between years 1986 to 1989 in Kashmir revealed incidence rates of 43.6/100,000 per annum and 9.9/100,000 per annum in men and women respectively, which is 3-6 times higher than that was recorded in other Indian cities (Khuroo et al 1992). Kashmir, harboring a unique ethnic population with special and stable dietary habits makes it an interesting field area for studying relevance of diet in human gastric carcinogenesis.…”

“…It indicates that the sole intake of these foods alone may play a role in development of gastric carcinoma in Kashmiri people. Earlier epidemiological studies on esophageal and gastric carcinoma in Kashmir suggest that the special dietary habits of Kashmiri population could be the most likely etiological factors for the development of stomach cancer (Khuroo et al, 1992;Malik et al, 2000). A study reported that high consumption of pickled foods was associated with a significant increased risk of stomach cancer (Ngoan et al, 2002).…”

“…The use of sodium bicarbonate at the time of boiling the tea leaves and the addition of common salt to the prepared tea could be a major cause of thermal injury to oesophageal epithelium and common salt alone is a well known irritant of gastric epithelium and has been considered a risk factor for highly prevalent gastric cancer in Kashmir (Khuroo et al, 1992). Interestingly, a study on esophageal carcinoma patients from Kashmir demonstrated that consumption of hot salted tea (with sodium bicarbonate) is significantly associated (p = 0.002) with the hypermethylation of p16 gene (Salam et al, 2009) which is in agreement with the present study where in the aberrant methylation of p16 promoter in gastric carcinoma patients showed a highly significant association with the intake of hot salted tea in 2 nd (p=0.000) age group.…”

Role of +405C>G and +936C>T Polymorphisms of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Gene and Risk of Esophageal Cancer in the Kashmiri Population

“…Kashmir Valley, in Northern India, lies at the south border of this high incidence region. Although there is no continuous cancer registration in Kashmir, current observational studies indicate that Kashmir Valley is a region of high risk of esophageal cancer (Mattoo and Kaul, 1974) with incidence of 42 and 27/100.000/year for men and women, (Khuroo et al, 1992) Several previous studies have attributed high incidence of esophageal and gastric cancers in Kashmir to considerable amount of nitroso compounds in raw foodstuffs and use of hot salted tea (Khuroo et al,1992;Siddiqi et al, 1992). Salted tea used in Kashmirvalley has considerable amounts ofIqbal Qasim 1 , Imtiyaz Ahmad Bhat 1 , Khalid Zafar Masoodi 1 , Zafar Amin Shah 1 *…”