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Clinicopathological characteristics of young patients with sporadic colorectal cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the clinicopathological features of and prognosis associated with sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) in Japanese patients younger than 40 years old.

Methods

The subjects of this study were patients with sporadic stage 0–III CRC, who underwent curative resection between 2004 and 2012 at the Cancer Institute Hospital. Clinicopathological characteristics and survival were compared between the young (<40 years; n = 81) and older groups (≥40 years; n = 2257).

Results

The median age was 36 years in the young group and 64 years in the older group. Young patients had a lower incidence of right-sided colon cancer (14 vs 28 %) and a higher incidence of rectal cancer (47 vs 32 %; P < 0.0001). The number of retrieved lymph nodes was significantly higher in the young group than in the older group (P = 0.0049). The young patients had similar overall survival and relapse-free survival to their older counterparts, except for overall survival in stage II patients (P = 0.0229). However, multivariate analysis indicated that age was not an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in patients with stage II CRC.

Conclusions

Young Japanese patients with sporadic CRC have unique characteristics such as a high incidence of rectal cancer and similar pathological features; however, they appear to have comparable survival to older patients.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Cancer Institute Hospital, 3-8-31, Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 135-8550, Japan

      Asuka Murata, Takashi Akiyoshi, Masashi Ueno, Yosuke Fukunaga, Satoshi Nagayama, Yoshiya Fujimoto, Tsuyoshi Konishi, Toshiya Nagasaki, Jun Nagata, Riki Ohno & Toshiharu Yamaguchi

    2. Department of Clinical Genetic Oncology, Cancer Institute Hospital, 3-8-31, Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo, 135-8550, Japan

      Masami Arai

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    1. Asuka Murata
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    Correspondence to Takashi Akiyoshi.

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    A. Murata and T. Akiyoshi contributed equally to this work.

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    Murata, A., Akiyoshi, T., Ueno, M. et al. Clinicopathological characteristics of young patients with sporadic colorectal cancer. Surg Today 46, 1166–1175 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-015-1298-9

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-015-1298-9

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