Effect of age on clinical postoperative outcomes of elderly patients with colorectal cancer undergoing surgical treatment / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the effect of age on clinical postoperative outcomes of elderly patients with colorectal cancer undergoing surgical treatment. Methods The clinical data of 1249 patients from January 1999 to December 2007 were analyzed retrospectively, and patients were divided into two groups according to age; the study group (≥75 years, n=312) and the control group (<75 years, n=937). Results (1) The average age was significantly higher in study group than in control group (t=33.09,P<0.05), and the rates of malnutrition risk, co-morbidity, tumor in right colon and local Iymphonodus metastasis were significantly higher in study group than in control group (x2=47.33, 130.75, 21.24 and 45.33, P<0.05). ( 2 ) The rates of preoperative surgical complications, bowel obstruction and emergency operation were significantly higher in study group than in control group (x2 =26.81, 34.14 and 10.72, P<0.05) . The rate of resection was significantly lower in study group than in control group (x2 =9.732, P<0.05). (3) The overall incidences of postoperative complications, general complications and mortality of perioperative period were significantly higher in study group than in control group (x2= 19.38, 20.75 and 10.11,P<0.05). (4) The two-year survival and five-year survival were significantly lower in study group than in control group (x2=11.91 and 27.17, P<0.05), but there were no significant differences in the cancer-specific two-year survival and five-year survival between the both groups. Conclusions Preoperative complications and co-morbidities, local tumor metastasis and postoperative nonsurgical complications adversely affect the postoperative outcomes for elderly patients with colorectal cancer.