ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world and the fourth most common cancer in Korea. The incidence of colorectal cancer is increasing steadily in Korea. In some countries, mortality rates have started to decline, and survival rates have increased. The survival rates of colorectal cancer is increasing due to early detection and to advances in adjuvant therapy. METHODS: This analysis studied colorectal cancer patients who had been operated on at Eul-Ji Medical college Hospital from Jan. 1991 to Dec. 1996. We analyzed the 5-year survival rate according to age, sex, duration of symptoms, stage, resectability, and histopathologic differentiation by the Kaplan- Meier method. RESULT:Age (p=0.482), sex (p=0.394), duration of Symptoms (p=0.346), and tumor location (p=0.685) did not appear to be statistically significant as prognostic factors. The 5-year survival rates according to the Dukes' stage were as follows:stage A (100%), stage B (77.7%), stage C (47.4%), and stage D (0.0%). The 5-year survival rates showed 8.2% in palliative resected cases and 67.2% in radical resected cases. In 139 radically resected adenocarcinoma cases, the 5-year survival rates were 73.4% of the highly differentiated cases, 67.6% of the moderately differentiated cases, and 35.7% of the poorly differentiated cases (p=0.043). CONCLUSION:Early diagnosis, well differentiation, and radical resection were significant as prognostic factors in our result. We could confirm that early diagnosis and radical resection are necessary to increase the survival rate in patients with colorectal cancer.