Colorectal Cancer Trends and Characteristics in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer in the developed world and the fourth in developing countries. To the best of our knowledge, no researchers have assessed colorectal cancer in Tabuk Region, Saudi Arabia. Therefore, we went ahead to investigate the clinical and pathological pattern of colorectal cancer in Tabuk. A retrospective cohort was conducted at King Fahad Specialist Hospital (KFSH) Tabuk City from January 2023 to May 2023. All the adult patient records (Saudi and non-Saudi) from January 2019 to December 2020 were approached. An Excel checklist with coding was used to gather the information. including sociodemographic data, histopathology, and the biopsy site, grade, and if malignant or benign. Out of 46 patients with colorectal cancer (60.9% men, and 78.3% Saudis), the patient's ages ranged from 36-92 years, and the majority of females (77.8%) were younger than 60 years. In this survey, the most common malignancy was the right side of the colon (39.1%) followed by recto-sigmoid (23.9%), and rectal cancer (19.6%). Adenocarcinoma was the commonest histopathological pattern (84.8%). Stage II was observed in 56.5%, stage I in 6.5%, and stage III was evident in 4.4%. Colorectal cancer was the second most common cancer in Tabuk City. The patients were younger and a tendency towards proximal shift was observed. Males were more affected and were older than women. Adenocarcinoma was the commonest histopathological finding, the majority were carcinoma in situ, and stage II was the commonest presentation.