COLONIC CANCER
A prospective study was conducted to see presentation and management of coloniccancer presenting to a surgical unit in a teaching hospital at Faisalabad. Objectives: To knowdifferent presenting symptomatology like abdominal mass, pain, intestinal obstruction, alteredbowel habits, rectal bleeding, age co-relation, sex distribution, anatomic location among coloniccancer patients and management done for these patients. Study Design: A prospective study.Period: February 2009 to March 2010 for one year. Material and Methods: Total 8 patients werediagnosed and treated for colonic cancer presenting in a single surgical ward. Patients with ageabove 14 years were included in study while patients presenting with trauma and metastaticdisease for other carcinoma were excluded. Results: Among 8 patients diagnosed for coloniccancer, age’s range from 26 to 50 years at maximum, 2 patients (25 %) were males and 6 patients(75 %) were females. Only one patient (12.5%) presented with single complaint of left iliac fossamass, 2 patients (25 %) with only single complaint of rectal bleeding as a presenting symptomwhile all other 5 patients (62.5%) presented with more than one or two symptoms at the sametime. Among 5 patients presented with more than one symptom all had presented with abdominalmass associated with additional symptoms like, one patient (12.5%) developed intestinalobstruction with left sided abdominal mass, another one patient (12.5%) left sided abdominalmass with alternate diarrhea and constipation, another one patient (12.5%) right sided masswith pallor, one patient (12.5%) had constipation with left sided mass while another one patient(12.5%) developed abdominal pain, weight loss and palpable left sided abdominal mass. Patientswere staged according to TNM staging system. All patients were above stage II and Dukes B. Allpatients were operated in Surgical Unit II at Allied Hospital Faisalabad. Left hemi-colectomy wasdone for 2 patients; right hemi-colectomy was done for single patient presented with mass andanemia on right side, sigmoid resection with colostomy for one patient, Hartmann’s procedurefor another one patient and single stage resection with primary anastomosis for one patient. 2patients underwent abdomino-perineal resection with end colostomy. Conclusion: This studytells that majority of the patients with colon cancer presented with left sided abdominal mass andother associated symptom, the age’s range from 26 to 50 years. Disease affected 6 females out oftotal 8 patients. Two patients underwent APR with end colostomy while other patients were treatedwith alternate procedures like primary anterior resection with anastomosis or end colostomy