Management of advanced colon cancer in a community hospital--impact of age on clinical management and survival.

PURPOSE: Colon cancer is more common in the elderly than in younger and middle-aged people. Cancer clinical trials focus more on younger patients and the management of elderly patients with advanced disease is still unclear.
METHODS: We studied all patients presenting with colon adenocarcinoma metastasis to liver at a community teaching hospital from Dec 2000 through Dec 2007 by a retrospective review of Tumor Registry data and patient chart review with focus on age, clinical management, decision making, and survival. Sixty-seven patients with a median age of 69 and a male to female ratio of 31:36 were identified.
RESULTS: The patients with obstructive symptoms and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status on presentation though varied little by age, smaller proportion of elderly patients underwent resection of the primary bowel tumor in the presence of liver metastases with ten of 16 (63%) aged 80 or greater being managed without surgery. The percentage of patient's preference to physician's preference for patients not undergoing the primary bowel resection increased for older age group. Median survival decreased significantly with age (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: Age-related clinical management, decision-making autonomy, and survival are apparent in this study, and there was an increasing trend of patient's involvement in decision making as the age increases and, thus, affecting the age-related clinical management.