Descriptive study of colorectal cancer in Iraq, 1999-2016

Abstract EN

Background: Colorectal cancer has increased in the last decades, which constitutes about 10% of cancer mortality.

It becomes the second and third most common cancer in women and men respectively.

Objective: To explore the factors for colorectal cancer in Iraq including age, gender, family history, diabetes, smoking, serum carcinembryonic antigen (CEA) as a predictor factor, stages of cancer, bowl habit, and symptoms.

Patients and methods: This study was conducted in surgical unit at Alkathymia Teaching Hospital, Baghdad and in Al-Jammhory Teaching Hospital, Mosul, during the period from Feb-1999 to June-2016.

This is a case series study for 956 patients with colorectal cancer.

The data gathered included: age, gender, family history, diabetes and smoking, serum CEA, stages of the disease, bowl habit and symptoms.

Data are presented as mean and percentage, and were analyzed by using Chi square goodness of fit test.

p values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: Colorectal cancer patients with ages between 25-50 years were significantly (p≤0.01) higher than the patients with > 50 years or <25 years.

Male patients (57.9%) were significantly (p≤0.01) higher than female patients (42.1 %).

The rate of patients with family history was 39.4% of the total patients.

Diabetic and smoking patients presented 28.7% and 37.9%, respectively.

Patients with serum CEA > 5 ng/mL presented the high percentage (83.6%) and they were highly significant (p ≤ 0.001) than patients with serum CEA less than 5.

Stage 2 (48.2%) was significantly (p≤0.01) higher than stage 1 (16.6%), 3 (20.6%) and 4 (14.5%), respectively.

For bowl habit, constipation presented 75.8% was significantly higher than diarrhea (14.5%).

In addition, symptoms of bleeding per rectum (71.1%) were significantly higher than symptoms of pain (28.2%).

Conclusion: Colorectal cancer is significant disease in Iraq.

Middle age patients presented the highest percentage.

Education of patients about bowl habit and symptoms of colorectal cancer should be applied especially constipation and bleeding per rectum.