A comparative study of rectal and colonic carcinoma: demographic, pathologic and TNM staging analysis.

Objective: The aim is to determine the relative frequency of rectal carcinoma in a large recent surgical series. In addition, rectal carcinoma is compared with colonic carcinoma with regard to demographic data, histological types and TNM stages.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective pathologic study was conducted on 215 patients with colorectal carcinomas, all treated by radical surgery during the years 2003-2005. Tumors of unfavorable histology included: Mucinous carcinoma, signet-ring carcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma. For tumor staging, the international TNM staging system was adopted.

Results: The mean age was 51 years and male to female ratio was 1.1. Rectal tumors contributed only 27% of cases, contrary to much higher previous reports from Egypt. Tumors of unfavorable histology constituted 24.2% of cases. Patients presented at advanced stages (78.6% stages II and III) with 46.5% lymph node metastases. Patients with rectal carcinomas were younger, with more risk of suboptimal distal surgical margins.

Conclusions: Egyptian patients with rectal carcinoma are younger than those with colonic carcinoma. Otherwise, patients with rectal carcinoma are similar to colonic carcinoma with regard to sex distribution, histological types and TNM stages.