BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the 5-year survival of patients with colon adenocarcinoma that underwent elective or emergency curative surgical treatment.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 1993 and 1998, 80 patients underwent a potentially curative colonic resection based on mobilisation along anatomic planes. Among the patients, 26 underwent right colectomy, 3 transverse colectomy, 13 left colectomy and 38 sigmoidectomy. All patients classified as TNM stage III underwent adjuvant chemotherapy. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyse survival.
RESULTS: Overall 5-year survival was 69.5%. Patient's sex and age, mucinous characteristics of the tumour and tumour location did not significantly affect survival. Patients with higher Duke's classification and TNM stage had significantly worse 5-year survival (p=0.025 and p=0.007, respectively). Although patients with good tumour differentiation had the highest 5-year survival, this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.211).
CONCLUSIONS: The treatment of colon adenocarcinoma with curative resection by the end of the 20th century is accompanied with acceptable rates of overall 5-year survival.