The abandonment of traditional diets and less active lifestyles in the North has a direct effect on rising cancer rates, says NWT's chief medical officer
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 11/01) - The rates are getting lower in the rest of Canada and increasing here, says Dr. Andre Corriveau.
He says this "abandonment" over the past 30 years of traditional diets removed an important shield against cancer and other ailments like heart disease and diabetes.
| NWT Cancer statistics:
Number of new cancer cases: predicted this year in NWT and Nunavut Number of cancer deaths: predicted this year in NWT and Nunavut Across Canada: - 134,100 new cases predicted and 65,300 deaths.
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Corriveau notes that Inuit used to eat raw, very lean meat and marine mammals rich in heart-healthy fatty acids, and Dene used to dry or boil caribou meat rather than fry it.
"The charring of those products creates some toxins that are believed to increase the risk of cancer. If you have a harmful product in the gut and you slow down transit time of food in the bowel (from less exercise) you increase the time of contact, so the rising rates of bowel cancer are attributed directly to the change in diets.
"In the south, bowel cancer used to be one of the most common ones but the rates are decreasing in Canada now because there have been a lot of positive diet changes in the south. People are eating more fruits and vegetables and less fried foods."
Smoking big problem
Add to this mix a higher proportion of smokers in the North and Corriveau gets frustrated because much of the cancer is preventable.
According to new figures from the Canadian Cancer Society, Northern communities have higher lung cancer rates than the rest of Canada -- in Nunavut almost three times the average.
"Those communities have the highest rates of smoking too," Corriveau says.
Yellowknife's Dr. John Morse foresees the lung cancer rates rising even more, because smoking hasn't yet slowed down in the North.
Smoke Alarm, a report commissioned by the department has found smoking rates were found to be higher among aboriginals under the age of 45. Worse, the report says aboriginal youth are three times more likely to smoke than non-aboriginal youth.
Among youth aged 10 to 17, 35 per cent of Metis, 36 per cent of Dene, and 46 per cent of Inuit said they were smokers.
"It's a tough battle with teenagers. It's sad to see that happening, I just don't think the stigma of smoking is strong here," he says.
The territory's Department of Health and Social Services department is attacking the problem, starting with a new advertising campaign targeting youths.
"We'll see benefits 10 to 20 years down the road. The benefits of smoking cessation take that long to be felt," Morse says.
Treatment on par with south
Treatment is another area health officials have found has room for improvement.
Morse says patients from remote communities "are sometimes a little lost," when they are undergoing treatment.
They travel to Yellowknife for surgery, then maybe on to Edmonton for more treatment before heading home.
"For someone who doesn't speak English, that can be quite a scary journey.
The NWT has no Magnetic Resonance Imaging (RMI) machine but a CT scanner installed less than two years ago at Stanton Regional Hospital has helped diagnose many cancers, especially lung cancer.
Stanton has an arrangement with the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton where patients are flown for MRI's, and the wait is under a week, Morse said.
Chemotherapy takes place in Edmonton under direction from the Cross Institute, run by the Alberta Cancer Board. Stanton has the capacity to treat all common cancers but patients in advanced stages are flown to Edmonton.
