Food and social background of nasopharyngeal cancer patients in Jakarta

Abstract

Many factors have been proven as the etiological and predisposing factors of nasopharyngeal cancer such as EB virus, diet, sex, genetics, social economy, environment and others. During 10 months from January to October 1996 in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Medical Faculty, University of Indonesia we found 81 new cases of nasopharyngeal cancer and compared them with 81 cases of non-NPC patients in the same time. Male patients were more frequent than female (64.20%: 35.80%); the average age was 45 years in NPC and 34.13 years in non NPC group. Education, monthly income, body weight, energy for cooking and water sources were studied. We found that the NPC patients came from a lower income group. The prominent evidence was that the consumption of salted fish as a protein source was higher in the NPC compared to the non NPC group (33.33% and 13.58%), and this difference was statistically significant. Poluted environment as well as smoking habit were also higher in the NPC compared to the non NPC group.