Determining the Survival Rate of Colorectal Cancer in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Objective: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common causes of death in the world. Despite of remarkable<br />advances in medical sciences, cancer is an important disease and the second cause of death after cardiovascular diseases.<br />The present study was aimed at determining the survival rate of colorectal cancer in Iran. Methods: The present study<br />is a systematic review of national and international electronic databases. Studies that had the inclusion criteria were<br />included in the study, electronically published articles over December 2007 and March 2015 were retrieved. The collected<br />data were analyzed by meta-analytic method through stata 11.0 Software, and the survival rate was measured. Results:<br />The 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year survival rates of colorectal cancer in Iran were respectively calculated as 85, 75.10, 65,<br />55.40, and 52.The results indicated that there is a significant relationship between anatomic location of tumor and<br />survival rate. According to the results of this examination, survival rate of the patients with rectal cancer was 41.9<br />times higher than those with colorectal cancer. Conclusion: Due to the relative high prevalence of this cancer among<br />young people in Iran and the low survival rate, early diagnosis of colorectal neoplasms is necessary before they become<br />symptomatic through more effective diagnosis programs of enhancing the patients' health and survival rate. Moreover,<br />it is necessary to conduct more specialized and relevant studies in order to determine genetic or environmental causes of<br />cancer such as diet and cultural and behavioral habits at the national level and with different ethnicities.