Colorectal or colon cancer is the third most common form of cancer with 655,000 deaths worldwide per year and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world. variety of risk factors have been linked to colon cancer including genetic factors (age, sex and hereditary mutations of repair enzymes genes), environmental exposures, daily life habits (diet, smoking, obesity and sedentary habits) and inflammatory conditions of the digestive tract. The present research is a retrospective epidemiological study concerning 280 patients with colon cancer who were hospitalized at Theagenion Cancer Hospital of Thessaloniki during 2006, 2007 and 2008. They were classified according to their age, sex, place of residence, occupation and tobacco consumption. The results revealed that 58.57% were males and 41,43% females, 82,49% of the patients were older than 60 years of age, 38,93% were urban and 60% rural district inhabitants. Pensioners represented 47,50%, farmers 18,93%, housekeepers 13,57%, employers or free lancers 10,71%. For the rest 9,29% no information has been recorded. Regarding the consumption of tobacco, 16,79% of them were smokers, 34,64% non smokers, whereas there was no information about the smoking habits of the remaining (48,57%). The results of this research with respect to age and sex of the patients are in agreement with bibliographical data, but conclusions can not be drawn about the connection between occupation and colon cancer onset. The fact that among the patients the non smokers were more than smokers, which is in contrast with the international data, could be attributed to the insufficiency of respective information for 48,57% of the patients. The unexpectedly higher frequency of colorectal cancer appearance among rural district inhabitants rather than among urban district inhabitants should be researched as soon as possible. The deficiency of information about fundamental risk factors of colon cancer, as genetic and environmental factors and lifestyle among Greek population requires the continuation and the extension of this epidemiological study, because prevention is the best cure and epidemiological studies have offered substantial contribution to prevention
