Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Nov 15, 2021; 13(11): 1791-1798
Published online Nov 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i11.1791
Colorectal cancer in Arab world: A systematic review
Nahed A Makhlouf, Muhammad Abdel-Gawad, Aya M Mahros, Sameh A Lashen, Mariam Zaghloul, Ahmed Eliwa, Eman E Elshemy, Zainab Ali-Eldin, Doaa Abdeltawab, Fathiya El-Raey, Dalia Omran, Marwa Khalaf, Nancy Fanous, Ahmed Shawkat Abdelmohsen, Ahmed Abu-Elfatth, Mohamed Abdelghani, Mahmoud Farouk, Mohamed Abdelaziz, Mohamed Alboraie
Nahed A Makhlouf, Doaa Abdeltawab, Ahmed Shawkat Abdelmohsen, Ahmed Abu-Elfatth, Mohamed Abdelghani, Mahmoud Farouk, Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut 71515, Egypt
Muhammad Abdel-Gawad, Department of Hepatology, Gastroenterology, and Infectious Diseases, Al-Azhar University, Assiut 71631, Egypt
Aya M Mahros, Mariam Zaghloul, Department of Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Infectious Diseases, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh 33656, Egypt
Sameh A Lashen, Department of Internal Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21521, Egypt
Ahmed Eliwa, Mohamed Alboraie, Department of Internal Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11884, Egypt
Eman E Elshemy, Department of Hepatogastroenterology and Infectious Diseases, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11651, Egypt
Zainab Ali-Eldin, Department of Internal Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11646, Egypt
Fathiya El-Raey, Department of Hepatogastroenterology and Infectious diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Damietta 34511, Cairo, Egypt
Dalia Omran, Department of Endemic Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo 12613, Egypt
Marwa Khalaf, Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Assiut Liver Center, Assiut 71511, Egypt
Nancy Fanous, Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Police Authority Hospital, Cairo 12654, Egypt
Mohamed Abdelaziz, Department of Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11824, Egypt
Author contributions: Makhlouf NA designed the research; Khalaf M did the registration on PROSPERO; Abdel-Gawad M performed the literature search and the statistical analysis; Mahros AM, Lashen SA, Eliwa A, Elshemy EE, Ali-Eldin Z, Abdeltawab D, El-Raey F, Omran D, Fanous N, Khalaf M, Abu-Elfatth A, Abdelghani M, Farouk M, Abdelmohsen AS and Abdelaziz M performed title, abstract screening, full article screening and data extraction; Makhlouf NA and Abdel-Gawad M analyzed the data; Makhlouf NA, Alboraie M, Abdel-Gawad M and Zaghloul M wrote the paper; Makhlouf NA and Alboraie M supervised the paper; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no competing interests.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Nahed A Makhlouf, MD, Professor, Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Assiut University, Assiut University Street, Assiut 71515, Egypt. nahedmak@yahoo.com
Received: February 21, 2021
Peer-review started: February 21, 2021
First decision: July 29, 2021
Revised: August 8, 2021
Accepted: September 16, 2021
Article in press: September 16, 2021
Published online: November 15, 2021
Processing time: 263 Days and 12 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Morbidity and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) is increasing globally. There is a particular concern about the rising incidence of CRC in young people in different parts of the world.

Research motivation

It is crucial for each country/region to know the actual prevalence, incidence, and predisposing factors for CRC to help in adequate planning for screening programs, preventive measures, and proper allocation of health care resources.

Research objectives

The main objective of this study was to explore and summarize the available evidence about prevalence and/or incidence of CRC in the Arab world.

Research methods

A systematic review of available literature was done to retrieve articles containing original data about CRC in the Arab world. Available data were extracted and summarized.

Research results

Nine studies including data about CRC in 5 Arab countries were found. Reported prevalence of CRC in Saudi Arabia was 0.72%, in United Arab Emirates was 0.78% and in Egypt ranged from 0.4%-14%. Qatar reported an average annual incidence rate of 7.5/100000/year. Egypt reported a crude rate of 3.1 in males and 2.3 in females. In Saudi Arabia, the crude incidence rate for CRC was 3.6 and 3.3 among females and males respectively. CRC tends to occur in the fourth or fifth decade of life, however, 25% of CRC patients were less than 40 years.

Research conclusions

Some Arab countries have a considerable prevalence of CRC. More data are expected to arise from the currently running CRC screening programs.

Research perspectives

Multicenter prospective trials and proper utilization of retrospective data are needed to assess the actual prevalence and incidence of CRC in different Arab countries.