Clinicopathologic Characteristics of Stomach Cancer among Patients Admitted to the Surgical Departments of Teaching Hospitals in Sana'a, Yemen

Abstract

Objective: To describe the characteristics of stomach cancer among patients admitted to the surgical departments of teaching hospitals in Sana’a city, Yemen. Methods: This retrospective, descriptive study was conducted to identify the characteristics of stomach cancer among patients admitted to the surgical departments of two major teaching hospitals in Sana’a; namely, Kuwait University Hospital of Sana’a University and University of Science & Technology Hospital, in the period from January 2011 to June 2015. Sociodemographic and clinical data in addition to the characteristics of stomach cancer among 106 documented cases admitted over the study period were retrieved from the medical records and analyzed. Results: Of the stomach cancer patients admitted over the study period, 55.7% were males and 52.8% were aged 50–70 years old. The most frequent symptom was dyspepsia (96.2%) followed by weight loss (88.7%) and loss of appetite (81.1%). Dysphagia was present in 56.6% of the patients, while upper and lower gastrointestinal bleedings were present in 15.1% and 6.0% of the patients, respectively. Palpable masses were present among 35.8% of the patients, being most frequently observed in the pylorus and antrum (22.1%) and the body of the stomach (18.9%) as revealed by abdominal computed tomography. Regarding the histopathologic findings of endoscopic biopsies, tumors were well-differentiated in 32.1% and moderately or poorly differentiated in 26.4% of the patients each. However, moderately-to-poorly differentiated and lymphoma were less frequent (5.7%, each) and the gastrointestinal stromal tumor was observed in 1.9% of the patients. Conclusions: Clinicopathologic characteristics of stomach cancer among Yemeni patients are consistent with those documented internationally.