Epidemiology and risk factors of colorectal cancer in Syria: a single-center retrospective study

Colorectal cancer represents the third most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Many factors contribute to the risk of developing colorectal carcinoma including diet, lifestyle, age, and genetic abnormalities.  Recent findings have shown a considerable increase in the incidence rate of CRC in developing countries. However, there is little information regarding its incidence in the Middle East countries, including Syria. With our manuscript we aimed at presenting the first large epidemiological study regarding colorectal carcinoma incidence in Syria.

We conducted a retrospective study on colorectal carcinoma cases at our institution from 2014 to 2018. The data include the cases that were diagnosed and recorded based on multiple parameters including gender, age, year of diagnosis, city of origin, and profession.

The number of colorectal cancer cases was 1,117 out of 13,589 cases of all malignant tumors recorded from 2014 to 2018, with an annual average incidence of 8.2%. There was a statistically significant difference in CRC cases according to age and gender. We also found a statistically significant difference according to physical activity and occupation.

These results demonstrate that risk factors related to colorectal cancer incidence in Syria mainly include male sex, age over 50 years old, and occupation with no physical activity.