Three in four cancer cases in Qatar are expatriates

Manama: Three out of four cancer cases in Qatar are expatriates, the local media have reported.

"The number of cancer cases reported in Qatar in 2009 was 756,” it was reported in the Qatari daily The Peninsula on Wednesday.

“Out of these cases, 562 patients were expatriates and 194 were nationals," the newspaper report said.

Foreigners make up three quarters of the total population.

The Peninsula report stated that out of the total cases of cancer, 141 were breast cancer, and 73 were colon and prostate cancer.

The number of patients has been increasing. At least 200 cancer cases are reported in the country every year.

Some 700 women were tested for breast cancer in 2008 and 2009, and only six were detected as having the disease in the early stages.

Only one of them was administered chemotherapy while the others were “cured” with the help of other medicines, the paper said.