Abstract
Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is the standard technique for diagnosis of patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal symptoms. Some reports have shown high prevalence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan. The aim of this study was to investigate epidemiological profile of esophageal cancer among patients in this region. We identified 364 consecutive patients that received EGD examinations to examine upper gastrointestinal tract at the endoscopy unit of Balkh regional Hospital from March 2012 to March 2013. The case subjects included both in-patients and out-patients aged 16 years or more. We evaluated the results retrospectively. The cases consisted of 184 (51%) males and 180 (49%) females. The mean age was 47.3±17.8 and the age range 17-88 years. Ninety two cases had esophageal cancer, out of which 58 (63.0%) were male. The mean age at time of diagnosis was 57.8±13.2 years. Uzbek-Turkmen peoples were more common among patients with esophageal cancer (52.2%). Dysphagia was the most frequent symptom among patients with esophageal cancer at the time of presentation, seen in 77 (84.8%) of cases. Our results showed high incidence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan, especially in the Uzbek-Turkmen ethnic group.
Highlights
Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is a standard and established upper gastrointestinal endoscopy technique that visually examines lining of gastrointestinal tract from esophagus through stomach, duodenal bulb and descending small intestine (Nguyen et al, 2010)
Our results showed high incidence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan, especially in the Uzbek-Turkmen ethnic group
Very high rates of esophageal cancer have been reported in several other areas of Central and East Asia including the northern part of Afghanistan (Mir et al, 2009)
Summary
Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is a standard and established upper gastrointestinal endoscopy technique that visually examines lining of gastrointestinal tract from esophagus through stomach, duodenal bulb and descending small intestine (Nguyen et al, 2010). Very high rates of esophageal cancer have been reported in several other areas of Central and East Asia including the northern part of Afghanistan (Mir et al, 2009). Squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus is a common type of esophageal tumor (Amini et al, 2014); of which more than 80% of cases and deaths occur in developing countries (Igissinov et al, 2012; Kiadaliri, 2014). This is a unique epidemiological feature that differentiated it from other cancer types. Conclusions: Our results showed high incidence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan, especially in the Uzbek-Turkmen ethnic group
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