Traditionally, gastric cancer was considered the main digestive cancer. In Romania, in the last decade, the experts from all university centers noticed an alarming increase of colorectal cancer (CCR) incidence, the fraction gastric/colorectal cancer being now inversed.
Aim: To study the epidemiological trends of CCR in Romania in different counties and to analyze the proportion of cases diagnosed in 4 traditional endoscopy units.
Methods: We have analyzed the CCR data from National Institute of Statistics (NIS) and those available from medical archives of 4 important GI units for establishing the annual incidence of CCR in all counties of Romania, and the distribution of CCR in relation with age and gender. We made a specific analysis of incidence trend in CCR for each county.
Results: The data obtained from NIS showed an increase of the number of new diagnosed cases of CCR in Romania from 2971 to 5185, which means an increase with 74.5% ; in incidence term means an increase from 13.5/100000 to 23.57. More than half (55.8%) of new cases of CCR were diagnosed in 14 counties (less than one third of population). A high frequency of CCR seems related to the report urban/rural, the economic development, the average income, but also the access to a Endoscopy Unit. The data collected from 4 university centers showed the same ascendant epidemiological trend.
Conclusion: The incidence of CCR is in a continuous increase in Romania, the epidemiologic trends being similar with those recorded in Western Europe until 90th. In western countries, the increase awareness about CCR and methods of screening and early diagnosis determined a stabilization of incidence of CCR. Similar efforts of society and sanitary system are required in