The Barbados Cancer Society (BCS) has sounded the alarm on the increasing incidence of colon cancer in the country, attributing it largely to Barbadians’ current diet.
This urgent health concern was highlighted during the society’s annual raffle prize-giving ceremony, where campaigners called for immediate action to address the growing crisis.
The Cancer Society president, Professor David Rosin, emphasised the urgent need for dietary improvements to curb the trend.
“The [second] most common cancer [here] is colon cancer [and] it’s probably due to diet,” he explained. “It’s another cancer that is also more commonly passed down through families. Why it is increasing here [however] is because of the diet. Your parents and grandparents ate a much healthier diet with high fibre, lots of breadfruit, etcetera, whereas nowadays, I’m afraid to say, it’s a lot of fast food and food which is low in fibre.
“Really, we have to impress upon people and also the young people in the schools that they should eat healthy.”
The professor also highlighted the prevalence of prostate cancer, with over 300 cases reported annually.
Professor Rosin said: “Here in Barbados, the commonest of cancer is still – despite it being half the population [men] – prostate cancer.
There are in fact 320 new cases every year out of a population of 285 000 people. That is about 45 per cent of all cancers [reported locally]. It’s really something to worry about.
“The anxiety here is not only is it the commonest cancer, but it is also unfortunately more aggressive and occurring in younger men.”
Shelly-Ann Forde, the society’s administrative director, added that recent community outreach efforts have seen rising interest among some men in coming forward for the necessary testing.
She said: “At a recent outreach event sponsored by [the Bureau of] Gender Affairs, we were doing free screenings and we even had to turn back some of the men. We already had the initiative to go out into the community before that, but that kind of reinforced the fact that men do want to be screened, and if there is an opportunity they do come out and try to be screened.”
However, Professor Rosin said the current number of men coming forward remains inadequate and urged families to encourage testing.
He said: “I would ask their wives, sisters, brothers, to come forward and say to them ‘be sensible; go and have a PSA test’. If you can [diagnose] a cancer at the beginning, the treatment is much less aggressive, and you won’t need radical surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, all that. It’s really almost stupid not to be screened.”
During the event, the first-place winners of the 2024 BCS raffle, Raymond and Sheena Gill, represented by Shauntel Rock, received a $25 000 prize. They donated $5 000 of their winnings to the Cancer Society.
shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb
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