The pattern of colorectal carcinoma in nineveh province, iraq : a retrospective analysis of 162 biopsies

Abstract EN

Bakground & Objective.: Colorectal cancer continues to be the most common cancer of the gastrointestinal tract in western countries.

It is induced by environmental factors and genetic predisposition.

The objective of this study was to describe the pattern of colorectal carcinoma in Nineveh province, Iraq, to define its relative frequency, and to compare the results with other studies.

Methods: The case files of patients who underwent surgical intervention over a nine-year period (January 1993 to December 2001) were reviewed.

Data from Al-Zahrawii Teaching Hospital, Al-Salam General Hospital, and some private laboratories were collected concerning the age, sex of the patients, site, and histopathological type of the tumor.

Some of the slides were examined; the results were arranged in tables.

Results: A total of 162 patients with colorectal cancer were reviewed during the study period.

There were 80 men and 82 women, with a ratio of 0.97:1.

The ages ranged between 10-95 years (mean 49.8 years); peak age incidence was between 51-60 years; however, 25.8% of the patients were below 40 years of age.

Left sided colonic tumors were more commonly seen than right-sided tumors (62.5% vs.

27.5%).

Adenocarcinoma was the commonest histopathological type (94.5%) and 72.2% of the lesions were in Duke's C stage.

Conclusion: There is a rising incidence of large bowel cancer in our locality compared to previous reports done in the 1980s.

This rising incidence can be attributed to the change in diet to the western style, improved methods of diagnosis.

It might also be induced by the exposure to depleted uranium in the Gulf war in 1991