Incidencia de los tumores digestivos en el Área de Salud de León en el quinquenio 1993-1997: alta incidencia del carcinoma colorrectal

AIM: To determine the incidence of various digestive tumors in the health district of Leon. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All digestive tumors registered in the Hospital Tumor Registry in Leon from 1993-1997 were included. Unadjusted and adjusted incidence rates of each kind of tumor, using the ICD-9 classification, were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 9,913 cancer cases were included. Diagnosis was confirmed by the Department of Pathology in 93.4%. Of these, 25.38% originated primarily in the digestive system, which represents an unadjusted incidence of 151.73 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants/year. A total of 58.07% were male and 41.93% female. Colon cancer was the most frequent (31.5%), followed by gastric cancer (25.7%) and rectal cancer (20.3%). The highest incidence, both unadjusted and adjusted, was in colon cancer (52.8 and 25.9) followed by gastric cancer (47.4 and 24.3) and rectal cancer (36.1 and 18.3, all they 10(5)/year. CONCLUSIONS: Incidence of digestive cancer in Leon is very high and that of colorectal cancer is higher than in any other region in Spain. This is only partly due to the marked aging of our population.