[Prevalence of digestive system cancer patients covered by the Mexican Institute of Social Security of the State of Sinaloa, Mexico]. / Prevalencia de cáncer del aparato digestivo en población derechohabiente del IMSS en el Estado de Sinaloa, México.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of malignant neoplasia of the digestive tract in patients seen at the IMSS concentration hospital in Culiacán, Sinaloa, México. METHODS: From 32,097 histopathologic studies performed at No. 1 Regional General Hospital Pathology Department in Culiacán, Sinaloa, 406 were identified as digestive tract malignant neoplasia (DTMN); patient's age and gender were analyzed as well as involvement site and histological type. Benign and metastasic neoplasias were excluded. RESULTS: DTMN prevalence: 1.26%; more affected: 60-69 years; male predominance (66%), p < 0.0001. As a whole, 47.2% of the studies reported stomach cancer; colorectal cancer: 17.5%; gall bladder and bile duct cancer; 8.4%; liver cancer: 8.1%; the remainder were located in other sites. DTMN rate by histologic type were similar to other concentration hospitals of the country. CONCLUSIONS: DTMN has an outstanding magnitude in IMSS Sinaloa patients if other hospital registrations are considered. There are possible regional factors that may contribute to this behavior.