Association between anemia and gastrointestinal malignancy among male patients in a university hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: Iron deficiency was reported as the most common nutritional deficiency in developing and developed countries. Many studies reported that iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is related to the development of gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies.

Aim: The current study aimed at investigating the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia among Saudi patients subjected to endoscopy procedure, and to assess the association between iron deficiency anemia and GI malignancy.

Method: A retrospective study was performed over 244 Saudi patients attending King Saud University Hospital (KSUH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between 2015 and 2018. Data were collected from the hospital database (esihi). Patients aged 30 years or more were recruited in this study. They had to be subjected to endoscopy before the recruitment period. Complete blood count analysis was performed for the blood samples collected from the patients.

Results: The findings of the study showed that the prevalence of IDA among Saudi patients was 63.5%. Gastritis (15.16%), colon carcinoma (13.11%), and polyps (12.7%) were the most reported endoscopy results among patients with IDA. In addition, it was found that there is no significant association between IDA and GI malignancy.

Conclusion: The study concluded that despite the reported significant association between IDA and GI malignancy, the current study revealed that there is no significant association between IDA and GI malignancy. This might be attributed to sample-related issues, which require more extended studies investigating larger sample sizes, in addition to including ferritin level measurements for the investigated patients.