Colorectal Cancer in Octogenarians: Results of Treatment, a Descriptive Clinical Study

Background: colorectal cancers (crcs) often occur in octogenarians. however, data on treatment and survival are sparse. objectives: octogenarians were studied in order to gain data on treatment, outcomes, and survival related to crc. patients and methods: all consecutive octogenarians with crc in the period of 2002 - 2008 were included. an extensive review of hospital records was carried out. patients were divided into two groups, as follows: group 1 included patients who were alive after five years of follow-up, while group 2 comprised patients who died within 5 years of their diagnosis. cause of death was determined and classified as related to cancer, non-related, or because of treatment. results: onehundredandeleven octogenarians were diagnosed withcrc(82 colon cancersand29 rectal cancers). patients in group 2 had a significantly higher disease stage compared with group 1 (p < 0.001). patients in group 1 more often underwent surgery with curative intent (p< 0.0001). there was no difference in clinical presentation or localization of themalignancy. in group 1, 14 patients died more than 5 years after surgery. the cause of death was not related to cancer in 100% of cases. in group 2, 29 (46.0%) died as a direct consequence of crc, 14 (22.2%) due to the treatment, and 20 (31.7%) died due to non-cancer-related causes. the overall 5- year survival rate was 40% in colon cancer patients and 51.7% in rectal cancer patients. the charlson age co-morbidity scores were significantly lower in colon cancer patients in group 1 (p = 0.005). this was not the case in patients with rectal cancer. conclusions: the co-morbidity score is important in survival after surgery. forty-four percent of octogenarians with crc died because of non-tumor-related disease or illness. fit elderly people can benefit from standard therapy for crc