بررسي اپيدميولوژيك بيماران مبتلا به سرطان مري در مراجعه كنندگان به مركز پرتودرماني شهيد رجايي بابلسر (77-1371)

Epidemiologic study of patients with oesophageal cancer referring to the Babolsar Shahid Rajaii radiotherapy center

Background and Objectvies: The South of littoral of Caspian Sea is located on the Asian belt of oesophageal carcinoma, where has the highest incidence in the world. The objective of this study was to determine the epidemiologic aspects of patients with oesophageal carcinoma in the north of Iran. Materials and Methods: Based on the existing data of medical charts, we conducted a descriptive study of 668 patients with oesophageal carcinoma who referred to Shahid Rajaii radiotherapy center in Babolsar during 1993 to 1999. The data was included age, sex, occupation, residence area, and history of alcohol, smoking, drug consumption, anatomic location and histologic type of tumour. We used t-test and Chi-square test in statistical analysis. Results: The mean (±SD) age of 668 patients was 62.8 (±11) years and the modal age group 60-69 years. The mean age of males was significantly greater than females (63.8 vs 61.2 years, P<0.05); 54.5% of patients were male and 62.1% of males were farmers, 14.5% clerk, and 7% workers whereas 92.4% of females were housewives. Roughly, 0.7% of patients had a history of alcohol consumption, 19.3% smoker and 7.9% drug users and 50.3% of patients were residence of urban area. The most common histologic type of tumour was squmous cell carcinoma (91.3%) and 7% of tumours were adenocarcinoma. The ratio of men to women of adenocarcinoma was 3 to 1; also squmous cell carcinoma was more common among men than women; the relation between the histologic type of tumour and gender was significant (P<0.05). The most common location of squmous cell carcinoma was the upper third of oesophagus (47.1 %) and for adenocarcinoma the lower third (86.4%). Also, we observed a significant relation between occupation and the histologic type of tumour. Conclusion: The results indicated that the frequency of oesophageal carcinoma is increased over the age 50 years. The relation of histologic type of tumour with location and gender are consistent with those reported in the other studies in the western countries, which shows the same pattern of epidemiologic aspects of this neoplasm in the world.