Surgery for colorectal cancer in the small town of Komotini

BACKGROUND: Here we report our experience in treating colon cancer in the 5 years from 200 to 2011. Our surgical clinic treated 49 patients with colorectal cancer, of whom 28 (57.14%) were men of mean age 62 years and 21 (42.86%) were women of mean age 66 years. METHODS: In 15 cases, the cancer was related to the rectum (30.61%) and the remaining 34 cases (69.39%) were related to the colon. We found synchronous cancer in two patients. One was found in the blank and the upper right while the second was found in the transverse and sigmoid colon. Six of our patients suffered from coexisting biliary lithiasis and underwent simultaneous cholecystectomy, and simultaneous bile duct exploration for common bile duct lithiasis was performed in one of these patients. RESULTS: Twenty-eight of the patients with colon cancer were treated surgically on an emergency basis. There were two postoperative deaths due to septic shock and multiple organ failure. In total, we noted seven complications, all of which involved patients who had undergone emergency surgery. The length of hospital stay was 8–14 days. Four patients with stage IV disease died 2 years after surgery, and the remainder are still alive. CONCLUSION: We conclude that colon cancer still occurs after the sixth decade, with a male predominance, and is mainly located in the rectum and sigmoid colon. The high rate of ileus in our region indicates inadequate diagnostic access for the residents of our region. However, mortality remains low.