B Zhang1, A Fattah, H Nakama. 1. Department of Public Health, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Nagano, Japan.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/AIMS: A comparative study was carried out to clarify the clinicopathological features and survival rate of elderly patients with colorectal cancer diagnosed by immunochemical fecal occult blood screening. METHODOLOGY: The study subjects included 208 patients with colorectal cancer, who were divided into 2 groups based on their ages: 52 patients aged 75 years and over (older group) and 156 patients aged 50-74 years (younger group). The 2 groups were compared in terms of their individual factors, including site, size, Dukes' classification, histo-pathological type of their cancer lesions and 5-year survival rate. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in prevalence of tumor sites between the older and younger groups (P < 0.05). Particularly, the frequency of right colon cancers was higher in the older group (34.6%) than in the younger group (20.5%), but there were no differences found in any other factors such as size, Dukes' classification, and histopathological type. Survival rate was almost the same between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that elderly patients are susceptible to right colon cancer but there is no difference in the clinicopathological characteristics and 5-year survival rate between older and younger patients with colorectal cancer detected by immunochemical fecal occult blood test. The older as well as younger people should be encouraged to attend the screening program for colorectal cancer by immunochemical fecal occult blood test.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: A comparative study was carried out to clarify the clinicopathological features and survival rate of elderly patients with colorectal cancer diagnosed by immunochemical fecal occult blood screening. METHODOLOGY: The study subjects included 208 patients with colorectal cancer, who were divided into 2 groups based on their ages: 52 patients aged 75 years and over (older group) and 156 patients aged 50-74 years (younger group). The 2 groups were compared in terms of their individual factors, including site, size, Dukes' classification, histo-pathological type of their cancer lesions and 5-year survival rate. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in prevalence of tumor sites between the older and younger groups (P < 0.05). Particularly, the frequency of right colon cancers was higher in the older group (34.6%) than in the younger group (20.5%), but there were no differences found in any other factors such as size, Dukes' classification, and histopathological type. Survival rate was almost the same between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that elderly patients are susceptible to right colon cancer but there is no difference in the clinicopathological characteristics and 5-year survival rate between older and younger patients with colorectal cancer detected by immunochemical fecal occult blood test. The older as well as younger people should be encouraged to attend the screening program for colorectal cancer by immunochemical fecal occult blood test.
Authors: Frank Marusch; Andreas Koch; Uwe Schmidt; Ralf Steinert; Torsten Ueberrueck; Reinhard Bittner; Eugen Berg; Rainer Engemann; Klaus Gellert; Rainer Arbogast; Thomas Körner; Ferdinand Köckerling; Ingo Gastinger; Hans Lippert Journal: World J Surg Date: 2005-08 Impact factor: 3.352