Colorectal cancer trends by anatomic sides, age and staging. A twenty-year study of 1412 Greek cases.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Greek patients, suffering from colorectal adenocarcinoma, showed the same changes in the side distribution, as has been observed in the patients of many western countries. We retrospectively analysed 1412 consecutive cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma admitted to our institute over in a twenty-year period. The side distribution, the staging and the grade were evaluated in correlation with the age. We found that the number of patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma has steadily increased. The right-sided colonic carcinomas remained stable over the years in the total number of cases, however, for the elderly patients (age > 65 years), there was trend of gradual but steady increase in the incidence. We did not observe any evidence of earlier diagnosis in recent years. We conclude that a delayed but similar trend in the incidence and distribution of colorectal adenocarcinoma is present in Greek patients. The maintenance of the traditional dietary habits could change the pattern.