Rectal Cancer in Srinagarind Hospital: 2000-2010, Hospital Based Population

Abstract

Background and Objective: Srinagarind hospital is a tertiary health care center comprising many subspecialty physicians expertising on malignancy, hence, most cancer cases including rectal cancer in the Northeast (NE) are referred to this hospital for proper management. Therefore, the cancer situation occurring in Srinagarind Hospital might reflect the situation of cancer in NE as a whole.

Methods:All new rectal cancer cases registered in Srinagarind hospital between January 1^st, 2000 and December 31^st, 2010 were included in this study. Our data were obtained from the Khon Kaen Cancer Registry. The characteristics of patients and survival time were analyzed.

Results: The trends of rectal cancer studied were obviously rising. The number of new rectal cancer cases at the end of study period was almost two folds higher than that at the beginning. There were 1,031 patients diagnosed rectal cancer and the case number were almost comparable among males and females (1.28:1). The mean age at primary diagnosis was 58 years in males and 57 years in females. Patients commonly presented with advanced stages of disease, mostly stage IV (24.73%) and 15.23% was stage III. Liver was the commonest site for distant metastasis of rectal cancer and the second common site was lungs. The average survival time of patients was 29.76 months (95% confidence interval (CI), 25.68-33.84; p value < 0.05). The median survival time of patients with stage I and II could not reach analytical point whereas the median survival time of stage III and IV were 73.92 and 14.16 months, respectively.

Conclusions:Rectal cancer trends had gradually increased during the period of study. Additionally, the prognosis and treatment outcome were poor. Most of patients were presented with advanced stages of disease. However, rectal cancer has fairly good prognosis if early stages can be detected and patients are treated earlier. Therefore, early awareness of rectal cancer symptom should be seriously concerned and the screening test for rectal cancer should be also performed earlier.