Malignant neoplasia of the colon, rectum and anus at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre

ABSTRACT

Malignant neoplasms of the colon, rectum, and anus are relatively uncommon in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This paper documents the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre tumor registry colorectal cancer data base. Between June 1975 and December 1989, 622 patients were registered with malignant colorectal and anal tumors. There were 383 males and 239 females. The average ages were 53.5 years and 47.8 years. The majority of patients were Saudi. The single most common site for large bowel malignancy was the rectum. There were 455 simple adenocarcinomata, 39 mucinous adenocarcinomata, and 17 signet-ring adenocarcinomata. There were 46 epidermoid cancers. Most of the tumors were moderately differentiated and the majority of tumors were greater than 5 cm in diameter. Fifty-seven patients had disease localized to the organ of origin, 56 patients had disease which was localized but directly invading an adjacent organ, and the remaining patients had nodal or distant spread. The greatest majority of patients came from either Makkah or Riyadh. There were no provincial differences in the disease. There were more smaller and differentiated lesions in the sigmoid colon than in the rectum and right colon, but more patients with metastatic disease to the nodes or distant organs. Tumors were smaller at presentation and less disseminated in Saudis than in the other Arabs