Colorectal cancer in a region of western of Algeria: results of 581 cases in 5 years

Aims: The objective of this work is to evaluate the epidemiological profile of colorectal cancers, histologically proven over a 5-year period (2012-2016) in the Tlemcen region. Methods: A retrospective study of 581 cases of colorectal cancer collected at the epidemiology department of the UniversityHospital Center (UHC) of Tlemcen between January 2012 and December 2016 was performed. Epidemiological data were processedusing SPSS version 25 and Microsoft Excel 2010. Results: The epidemiological profile has shown that colorectal cancer in our region ranks 3rd in both sexes. There were 322 men(55.4%) affected compared to 259 women (44.6%) with a sex ratio of 1.2. A predominance of males is noted in 50-60 age group, while for the female sex, the dominance is between 60-70 years old. The mean age of CRC occurrence was 60±13 years, with an extremity ranging from16 to 90. A significantly higher rate was recorded for rectal cancer (43.7%) followed by sigmoid colon (5.7%). Variable rates were recorded during the 5 years with a peak in 2014 (27.9%). Conclusion: Regular analysis of these data, if supplemented with additional data on diagnostic modalities like circular RNA diagnostic, will contribute to the assessment of the impact over time of public policies on nationally organized CRC screening. Keywords: Colorectal cancer; epidemiology; Algeria; Tlemcen province.