Colorectal cancer in Egyptian patients under 40 years of age.
Although colorectal cancer is not a common cancer in Egypt, the age distribution of the disease shows that a high proportion occurs in children and adults under 40 years of age. We reviewed the records of 1,608 colorectal cancer patients treated in 4 cancer hospitals in Egypt during a period of 3 to 10 years. The hospitals in which about 85% of all colorectal cancer cases in Egypt were seen included Egypt's 2 major cancer centers, The National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Cairo and Tanta Cancer Center (TCC) in the mid-Nile Delta region, and 2 major university hospitals, Assiut University in South Egypt and Ain Shams University in Cairo. Our review showed that patients younger than 40 years represented 35.6% of all patients in the 4 cancer hospitals, and that these rates were similar among the hospitals and for the years reviewed. The male-to-female ratio increased from 1.0 to 1.7 for the age groups ranging from 0-9 and 30-39 years, and increased from 1.0 to 1.5 for the age groups ranging from 40-49 to over 60 years. More than half of all the patients had rectal tumors, and about 90% of the cancers were adenocarcinomas; 30.6% of patients younger than 40 years, compared with 13.8% of older patients, had mucin-producing tumors. This study confirmed the occurrence of a high colorectal cancer rate in young Egyptians, and it opens the door to future epidemiologic studies to identify causes and risk factors of this disease pattern in Egypt.
Soliman
A S
AS
Department of Community Medicine, Menofeia Faculty of Medicine, Egypt.
Bondy
M L
ML
Levin
B
B
Hamza
M R
MR
Ismail
K
K
Ismail
S
S
Hammam
H M
HM
el-Hattab
O H
OH
Kamal
S M
SM
Soliman
A G
AG
Dorgham
L A
LA
McPherson
R S
RS
Beasley
R P
RP
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004534:Egypt / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged