The investigation of clinical and demographic characteristics of syrian migrant colorectal cancer patients living in Gaziantep

Introduction and aim: The aim of our study is to investigate the clinical and demographic features of the disease in Syrian migrant colorectal cancer patients living in Gaziantep, as well as to examine the response to treatment and survival in these patients. Materials and method: The study included 193 Syrian immigrant patients who were diagnosed and treated for colorectal cancer at Gaziantep University Şahinbey Oncology Hospital and Dr.Ersin Arslan Training and Research Hospital between 2013-2021. Patients' files were scanned retrospectively. Descriptive statistics of the data obtained from the study are given by means of mean, standard deviation for numerical variables and frequency and percentage analysis for categorical variables. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis. In addition, the Log-rank test was used to compare the survival times. Analyses were performed with the assistance of the SPSS 22.0 programme. Significance level p<0.05 has been selected. Results: The median age of the patients was 50 years. The M/F ratio was 1.7. Additional disease was present in 56.9% of the patients. The most common presentation type at the time of admission was the association of anemia and rectal bleeding (54.4%). The most common localizations were rectum and sigmoid colon (43.5% and 35.7%, respectively). The pathological subtype was adenocarcinoma in all patients. At the time of diagnosis, 55.4% of the patients were operable. The median overall survival of the patients was 41 months. The 2-year overall survival probability of the patients was 61.8%. The mean progression-free survival time of the patients was 26 months. Conclusion: In our study, the mean age at the time of diagnosis in Syrian immigrants with colorectal cancer was found to be lower than in the literature. This may be explained by poor nutrition, stress and adverse environmental conditions. It was observed that most of the patients were admitted to the hospital in the late period, usually in the advanced stage, and therefore, the number of metastatic cases was high and the treatment response was poor.