Objective: To explore the clinical characteristics and pattern of incidence of colorectal cancers in Guangdong region.
Methods: Analysis and summary were made for 3870 colorectal cancer patients pathologically confirmed in the Nanfang Hospital and Huizhou Municipal Central Hospital of Guangdong province.
Results: Median age of 3870 cases with colorectal cancer was 55.3. The high-risk age ranged from 41 to 70.204 cases among them were young patients (age < or = 30, 5.3%). With increase of age the number of cases with rectal cancers decreased gradually, while cancers occurring in the right hemi colon increased gradually. The ratio between male and female was 1.42:1. There were altogether 3958 colonic cancer lesions found in all the cases. Among them 3783 (97.8%) cases presented with a single lesson, 87 (2.2%) cases presented with multiple lesions. 2243 (56.7%) lesions located in the rectum, 717 (18.1%) in the left hemi colon, 998 (25.2%) in the right hemi colon. Histological types in all the lesions cases were grouped as follows: tubular adenocarcinoma 2943 (76.0%); papillary adenocarcinoma 256 (6.6%); mucinous carcinoma 425 (11.0%); and miscellaneous types 246 (6.4%). Colorectal cancers with poor differentiation occurring in the young were 38.2% while in the middle age and the elderly were 29.9% and 14.6%, respectively. The difference between two groups showed a statistical significance (P < 0.01). The cases with confirmed stage A, B, C and D were 234 (6.0%), 1936 (50.0%), 1310 (33.9%) and 390 (10.1%), respectively, according to Dukes' staging system. The cases with the progressing stages (B, C, D stages) were 3636 (94.0%) among all the cases.
Conclusions: The number of patients with colorectal cancer admitted in hospital increased gradually in the recent 20 years, and showed a trend with the decrease percentage in rectal cancer and the gradual increasing in right hemi colon cancer with increase of patients age. Half of the colorectal cancer occurred in the rectum, the rest occurred in the left and right hemi colon. The three clinical epidemiological characteristics of colorectal cancer, which once existed in Chinese, has disappeared in Guangdong region.