Carcinoma of the colon and rectum in patients less than 40 years of age.

Thirty-one patients less than 40 years of age with carcinoma of the colon were treated at this hospital during the ten years between 1968 and 1978. This accounted for 3.6 per cent of the total number of patients with carcinoma of the colon and rectum seen during this period. Pain, rectal bleeding, change in intestinal habits and weight loss were the most common presenting symptoms. The average delay between the onset of symptoms and treatment was 6.4 months. Mucin-producing and poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas were present in 49 per cent of the patients in this study. Metastases to the ovaries occurred in 23 per cent of the female patients. The five year survival rate was only 22 per cent. The importance of early diagnosis and treatment and, in the female patient, of oophorectomy is emphasized.