Retrospective epidemiological study on stomach cancer in a region of western Algeria: about 394 cases between 2011 and 2015

Purpose Stomach cancer is a major global health problem; it is one of the ten most common cancers with poor survival, and its incidence is characterized by wide variation. The aim of this work is to carry out a retrospective epidemiological study on gastric cancer in the wilaya of Tlemcen (West Algeria) over a period of 5 years (2011-2015). Methods The data set was provided by the cancer registry of the Tlemcen wilaya. The statistical analysis was performed using software SPSS.21. Results During this period, 394 cases of gastric cancers were collected, including 199 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma (50.50%); gastric cancer was ranked in 5th rank of the ten most answered cancers in the wilaya. The average age of the patients was 60.5 +/- 14.208 years (60.618 +/- 13.556 men, 56.654 +/- 14.8761 women) with an extremity ranging from 18 to 91 years. A predominance of men has been observed with 60.4% against 39.6% of women, with a sex ratio of 1.5 and a significant difference between the two sexes (p = 0.08). Patients over 50 years of age represented the predominant age group (73.4%). The tumor topography was antropyloric in 6.09% of the cases, and the vast majority of the diagnosed cases was in the local stage (17.01%). Conclusion Stomach cancer remains one of the top ten cancers in the Tlemcen willaya, so extensive research on the risk factors for gastric cancer remains important to plan effective preventive and curative strategies to reduce this burden.