Colorectal adenocarcinoma in nigerian Igbos- A clinicopathologic analysis

Background: Colorectal carcinoma is becoming a public health issue in black Africans. Its frequency is increasing among people in their active productive years of life. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the clinic-pathologic characteristics of colorectal carcinoma among the Nigerian Igbos. Methodology: The surgical day book, histology request and report forms of confirmed cases of colorectal carcinoma submitted to the Department of Anatomic Pathology, FMC Owerri between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2016 were carefully studied for the demographic, clinical and histopathologic characteristics. Results: A total of 84 colonic biopsies were analyzed. The average age was 52.514.9 years with a range of 26 to 91 years. The male to female ratio was 1.6:1. The peak age of incidence was in the 41-50 age groups. The average duration of symptoms was 10.5 months with a range of 1 to 60 months. The commonest mode of presentation was abdominal mass 24.13% (28cases), abdominal pain 21.55% (25cases), and rectal bleeding 15.52% (18cases), intestinal obstruction 10.34% (12cases), constipation 8.62% (10cases) and abdominal distension 6.03% (7cases). The commonest sites involved along the length of the colon was the rectum 33 (39.29%) followed by the caecum 26 (30.95%), sigmoid colon 10 (11.9%), ascending colon 7(8.33%), descending colon 5 (5.95%) and transverse colon 3 (3.6%). 92.86% was adenocarcinoma, 1.2% was carcinoid and Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma respectively. The tumors were metastatic in 19.05% (16) of cases. The distal colon was involved in 54.76% (46) and the proximal colon in 45.24% (38).