Colorectal cancer A prospective baseline study population in the city of Montevideo

Preliminary results of the incidence study

Abstract

Uruguay shares with Argentina the dubious honour of
being the only South Amercan countries with a high
incidence of colorectal cancer. The present study is the
first population-based study of co/orectal cancer in
Montevideo. Through multiple--access searching strategy,
ali new cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in
inhabitants of Montevideo during 1991 were carefully
registered, in arder to achieve a proper knowledge about
incidence, clinical presentation, diagnostic methods,
treatment and clinico--pathologica/ staging. 554 patients
with newly diagnosed adenocarcinomas of the
colorectum were identified, with a male-female
relationship of 1:1,07 and an average age of 69 years.
24% presented as an emergency, mainly as intestinal
obstruction. 63% were colonic tumours (49% in right
colon and 51% in left colon) and 37% were rectal
tumours. Syncronic hepatic metastasis were found in
16,8%, isolated perifonea/ carcinomatosis in 5,4% and
extension of /he tumour to adyacent structures in 13,9%.
527 patients were operated (95,2%) with postoperative
mortality of 11,8%, and resection of /he tumour was done
in 475 patients (a resecability rate of 86%) with a 10,8%
postresection mortality. 3,4% of the coloree/al cancers
were metachronous and 1,9 synchronous. Analysis of
these data revealed: 1) that registering methodology was
basically appropiate; 2) that the main clinical and
pathological traits of coloree/al cancer in Montevideo are
not different from /hose resulting of o/her population
based on large unselected series in North America,
Australia or Western Europe.