Colon cancer is a heavy public health burden. No data has been previously published on colon cancer epidemiology in Lebanon. The objective of this study was to report the clinical and pathological features of surgically operated colon cancer. From July 2005 to July 2012, 187 sporadic colonic tumors were operated in Hotel-Dieu de France Hospital (Beirut, Lebanon). Demographic, clinical, pathological and staging data was collected. The male: female sex ratio was 1.3 and the mean age at diagnosis was 66.0 years. Most tumors occurred at the right colon (54.0%). Histologically, conventional adenocarcinoma had the biggest proportion (88.2%), followed by mucinous adenocarcinoma (9.1%). Most cases operated belonged to stages II, III or IV, leaving only 8.0% of the cases in stage I. Some characteristics were similar to western countries like the predominance of right tumors while others were similar to developing countries like the sex ratio and the high proportion of stage IV tumors at diagnosis. This study reports for the first time in the middle-eastern populations a clinico-pathological analysis of surgically operated colon cancer.
Keywords: Colon cancer; Lebanon; clinico-pathological; developing countries; middle-eastern epidemiology.; western countries.