Colorectal carcinoma in a Southern Mediterranean country: The Libyan scenario

Table 1 Display of key parameters of the cancer patients in eastern Libya

	Overall		Male		Female
Age (n/SD)	58.7	13.4	57.3	13.0	60.1	13.8
Age group (n/%)
20-29 yr	6	3.5	4	4.7	2	2.4
30-39 yr	10	5.9	7	8.1	3	3.6
40-49 yr	24	14.1	10	11.6	14	16.6
50-59 yr	42	24.7	20	23.3	22	26.2
60-69 yr	54	31.8	32	37.2	22	26.2
70-79 yr	26	15.3	12	14.0	14	16.6
80+ yr	8	4.7	1	1.1	7	8.4
Total	170	100.0	86	100.0	84	100.0
Nationality (n/%)
Libyan	170	98.3	89	100.0	81	96.4
Non-Libyan	3	1.7	0	0.0	3	3.6
Total	173	100.0	89	100.0	84	100.0
City of origin (n/%)
Ajdabia	8	4.6	6	6.7	2	2.4
Beida	17	9.8	9	10.0	8	9.5
Benghazi	113	64.9	56	62.2	57	67.9
Derna	6	3.4	3	3.3	3	3.6
Kufra	4	2.3	0	0.0	4	4.8
Marj	14	8.0	8	8.9	6	7.1
Tobruk	12	6.9	8	8.9	4	4.8
Total	174	100.0	90	100.0	84	100.0

Table 2 Distribution of the cases in terms of clinical staging, site of cancer and histopathological grade

	Overall		Male		Female
Clinical stage (n/%)
I-A	3	2.4	1	1.5	2	3.4
I-B	7	5.6	5	7.6	2	3.4
II-A	28	22.4	12	18.2	16	27.1
II-B	11	8.8	6	9.1	5	8.5
III-A	5	4.0	4	6.1	1	1.7
III-B	11	8.8	5	7.6	6	10.2
III-C	12	9.6	7	10.6	5	8.5
IV	48	38.4	26	39.4	22	37.3
Total	125	100.0	66	100.0	59	100.0
Site of cancer (n/%)
Right side	30	21.4	14	18.9	16	24.2
Left side	110	78.6	60	81.1	50	75.8
Total	140	100.0	74	100.0	66	100.0
Histopathological grade (n/%)
Well differentiated	29	33.3	17	35.4	12	30.8
Moderately differentiated	47	54.0	27	56.3	20	51.3
Poorly differentiated	11	12.6	4	8.3	7	17.9
Total	87	100.0	48	100.0	39	100.0

Table 3 The distribution of colorectal carcinoma based on site

Specific site	n	%
Anus	1	0.7
Appendix	1	0.7
Asc. colon	4	2.8
Cecum	6	4.2
Left side	25	17.5
Rectum	52	36.4
Right side	19	13.3
Sigmoid	35	24.5
Total	143	100.0

Table 4 Comparison of colorectal cancer incidence rates (age-adjusted per 10⁵)

Country	Male	Female
Benghazi, Libya (2012)[1]	17.5	17.2
Benghazi, Libya (2003)[10]	11.6	8.8
Western Libya[11]	14.2	12.0
Algeria (Setif, 1998-2002)[6]	6.6	6.8
Algeria (Alger, 2006)[7]	14.8	11.0
Egypt (Gharbiah, 1999-2002)[6]	6.3	4.4
Tunisia (Sousse, 1998-2002)[6]	11.6	9.0
Tunisia (Sfax, 2000-2002)[9]	11.5	9.1
Morocco (Rabat, 2005)[4]	7.2	4.6
Morocco (Casablanca, 2004)[5]	6.6	5.7
European Pool (MECC)	22.0	15.6
Iran[15]	8.2	7.0