Colorectal carcinoma: clinico-pathological pattern and outcome of surgical management.
OBJECTIVE
To report the pattern of presentation of colorectal carcinoma and the outcome of surgical therapy in a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.


METHODS
The case reports of all patients diagnosed to have colorectal cancer were retrospectively examined for: age, sex, symptoms and clinical findings, site of primary tumour and extent of metastases, operative management, histopathology results and the outcome of surgical therapy.


RESULTS
There were forty-three (33 male, 10 female) patients, with a mean age of 42.7 years (range, 23-79 years). Sixteen (37.2%) cases presented with rectal bleeding, ten (23.2%) with abdominal pain, eight (18.5%) had altered bowel habits whereas anaemia was found to be the most frequent clinical result reported in twenty (46.4%) patients. Right side tumour was encountered in twenty-one (48.8%) cases, left side tumour in twelve (27.9%) and anorectal cancer in ten (23.2%).For these lesions, thirty (69.7%) curative and thirteen (30.3%) palliative procedures were undertaken. All patients were reported to have adenocarcinomas: six (13.9%) patients had Dukes Stage A, eight (18.6%) Dukes B, twenty (46.1%) Dukes C and nine (20.9%) Dukes D. There were two post operative deaths, and four (9.3%) patients died due to tumour dissemination and cachexia, while twenty nine (67.4%) subjects had disease free survival.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a substantial proximal shift of the colorectal carcinoma with more advanced lesions at the time of presentation. Surgical resection should be the mainstay treatment with potentially curable tumours.
Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. eltinay1@aol.com
Omar F
OF
Eltinay
Salman Y
SY
Guraya