Incidence of Gastric Cancer in Marrakech and Casablanca, Morocco.

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer globally with over 70% of new cases occurring in developing countries. In Morocco, oncologists in Marrakech suspected higher frequency of gastric cancer compared to Casablanca, a city 150 kilometers away. This study calculated age-specific, sex-specific, and total incidence rates of gastric cancer in Marrakech and was compared to the Casablanca population-based cancer registry. Using medical records from Center Hospital University Mohammad VI and reports from 4 main private pathology laboratories in Marrakech, we identified 774 patients for the period 2008-2012. Comparison of rates showed higher age-specific incidence in Marrakech in nearly all age groups for both genders. A higher total incidence in Marrakech than in Casablanca was found with rates of 5.50 and 3.23 per 100,000, respectively. Incidence was significantly higher among males in Marrakech than males in Casablanca (7.19 and 3.91 per 100,000, resp.) and females in Marrakech compared to females in Casablanca (3.87 and 2.58 per 100,000, resp.). Future studies should address possible underestimation of gastric cancer in Marrakech, estimate incidence in other regions of Morocco, and investigate possible risk factors to explain the difference in rates.

Inflammatory breast cancer in north Africa: comparison of clinical and molecular epidemiologic characteristics of patients from Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.

Understanding molecular characteristics that distinguish inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) from non-IBC is crucial for elucidating breast cancer etiology and management. We included 3 sets of patients from Egypt (48 IBC and 64 non-IBC), Tunisia (24 IBC and 40 non-IBC), and Morocco (42 IBC and 41 non-IBC). Egyptian IBC patients had the highest combined erythema, edema, peau d'orange, and metastasis among the 3 IBC groups. Egyptian IBC tumors had the highest RhoC expression than Tunisians and Moroccan IBCs (87% vs. 50%, vs. 38.1, for the 3 countries, respectively). Tumor emboli were more frequent in Egyptian IBC than non-IBC (Mean ± SD: 14.1 ± 14.0 vs. 7.0 ± 12.9, respectively) (P < 0.001) and Tunisians (Mean ± SD: 3.4 ± 2.5 vs. 1.9 ± 2.0, respectively) (P < 0.01). There was no difference of emboli in Moroccan tumors (1.7 ± 1.2 vs. 1.8 ± 1.2 for IBC and non-IBC, respectively (P=0.66). This study illustrates that RhoC overexpression and tumor emboli are more frequent in IBC relative to non-IBC from Egypt and Tunisia. Tumors of Moroccans were significantly different from Egyptian and Tunisian tumors for RhoC expression and emboli. Future studies should focus on relating epidemiologic factors and clinical pictures to molecular features of IBC in these and other populations.