3/2007The comparison of symptoms of the colorectal cancer and extraintestinal digestive tract neoplasms in patientsreferred by family doctors to gastroenterology department

JACEK BUDZYŃSKI (Katedra i Klinika Gastroenterologii, Chorób Naczyń i Chorób Wewnętrznych, Collegium Medicum w Bydgoszczy, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu;Kierownik: prof. ndzw. dr hab. med. Maciej Świątkowski)

Background
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Material and methods
Retrospective analysis of 70 medical documentation of patients referred to department of gastroenterology by family doctors, in whom in the course of diagnostic procedures suspicion of abdominal tumour was confirmed.

Results
Patients with colorectal cancer (n = 39) were not significantly younger than individuals with the other abdominal malignant tumours (n = 31) (64.2 ± 14.6 vs 67.7 ± 10.8, p = 0.25). However, the first group ignored the symptoms and waited for a longer time before they visited doctor (6.6 ± 6.2 vs 3.9 ± 2.7 months; p = 0.027). Patients with colorectal cancer significantly more frequently reported: blood presence in the stool (30.7% vs 6.5%, p = 0.015), constipation (69.2% vs 2.45%, p = 0.001) and changing in defecation pattern (74% vs 2.45%, p =0.001). The prevalence of anaemia (79.5% vs 64.5%, p = 0.16), pencil-tin stools (2.5% vs 0%, p = 0.25) and loss of body mass (74.3% vs 74.1%, p = 0.79) were similar in the both subgroups.

Key words: abdominal tumor, symptomatology, primary care