Epidemiological and clinical features of gastric cancer: descriptive study of cancer registry cases of Fars province (2001-2006)

Cancer diseases especially gastric cancer is one of the most important problems in Iran and many other countries. Whereas, determination of epidemiological characteristics of gastric cancer is very important, this study carried out with the aim of epidemiologic survey of gastric cancer in Fars province.

This study was performed on total gastric cancer cases that registered in Tumor Registry Center of Fars province between2001-2006. Necessary information was gathered from cancer registry forms and hospital files. All statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS (V.13) software.

Of 442 gastric cancer patients 68.6% were males and 31.4% were females. Mean age at diagnosis was 58.4 years (SD=14.46), for men 60.72 years (SD=13.82) and for women 53.29 years (SD=14.48). In total, 91.5% of patients were married, most of men were farmer and greatest parts of women were housewife. History of smoking reported by 52.8% of cases. Most prevalent clinical finding in patients were epigastric pain, loss weight and loss appetite, respectively. In 74% of patients, time interval between beginnings of first symptoms until diagnosis of disease was more than one month and in 40.7% of cases, grade of tumor at diagnosis time was poorly differentiated.

According to these results, deduction of risk factors and early detection in at risk subjects such as smokers, high risk occupations and individuals with family history of cancer, is important for prevention and control of gastric cancer