Evaluation of the frequency of Gastrointestinal Cancers in one of the Khorram Abad Hospitals

Background: Gastrointestinal Cancers are one of the most important causes of mortality of patients in the world as well as in our country. The North of Iran is in Asian belt of esophagus cancer in addition, in other areas of our country gastric cancer is the most common GI Cancer. Because GI Cancers are common in Lorestan, we decided to study them in patients undergo endoscopy and colonoscopy in Shahid Rahimi hospital. Materials and Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional research was carried out on patients from the city of Khorram Abad and its suburbs who underwent endoscopy and colonoscopy at Rahimi hospital since Sep 1996 to Sep 1999. Biopsy samples were taken from all patients and analyzed pathologically. The distributions of cancers were determined according to age, sex, type and site of cancer. Findings: Totally, 408 patients out of 3088 patients had GI cancer. The most common site of GI cancer was esophagus (52.93%). Gastric cancer had a lower frequency (37.3%) and colorectal cancer had the lowest frequency (9.57%). The frequency of all GI cancers in men was higher than women. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was the most common esophageal cancer and adenocarcinoma was the most common type of cancer of stomach and colon. Conclusion: Cancers of esophagus, stomach and colon are the most frequent type of GI cancers in studied patients, respectively. Esophagus cancer had the highest frequency and colon cancer had the lowest frequency.