Colorectal Cancer: aggressive presentations among young Nigerian adults

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the fourth most common cancer contributing to high morbidity and mortality worldwide. CRC is very common in the Western world with typical peculiarities how- ever, the black population has a different pattern of presentations since polyps and other pre-malignant lesions are relatively uncom- mon as compared to the Caucasians. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study of patients referred for colonoscopy evaluation at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria. Sixty patients with colonic diseases were consecutively recruited during the study period. Colorectal cancer accounted for 11.7% of the study population with a M:F ratio of 2.5:1. Significantly, 57.14% of the patients were within 50 years of age. Over 70% of the patients were diagnosed with aggressive variant CRC. Constipation, fatigue, and weight loss were the dominant presenting symptoms, and predominantly left-sided colonic tumours were seen in 85% of the study population. For reasons that require further investiga- tions, the African population develops more aggressive variants of CRC at younger ages and it has a worse prognosis.