Colorectal Cancer in Central Tunisia: Increasing Incidence Trends over a 15-Year Period

Introduction: Significant variation in colorectal cancer incidence rates and trends has been observed acrosscountries. Data from Tunisia are sparse. In this paper, we analyzed trends in incidence rates of the colorectalcancer over a 15-year period, 1993-2007, in Central Tunisia. Design: Five-year age-specific rates, crude incidencerates, world age-standardized rates, and annual percent change were calculated using annual data on populationsize and its estimated age structure.
Results: A total of 1,443 incident cases of colorectal cancer were registered,with a male to-female sex ratio of 1.1:1. The world age-standardized rate was 10.0 per 100,000 among femalesand 11.7 among males. Over time, there were significant increasing trends by +2.6% (95% CI: 0.1%, 5.1%)and +5.3% (95% CI: 2.7%, 7.9%) for females and males, respectively.
Conclusion: The absence of a screeningprogram for colorectal cancer could explain the increasing trends observed among males and females in CentralTunisia. Our findings point the need to plan and develop effective programs aimed at the control and preventionof the spread of colorectal cancer in Tunisia.