Journal
BRITISH JOURNAL OF CANCER
Volume 95, Issue 10, Pages 1321-1325Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6603439
Keywords
colorectal cancer; primary health care; diagnosis; mortality
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The association between the staging of colorectal cancer and mortality is well known. Much less researched is the relationship between the duration of symptoms and outcome, and whether particular initial symptoms carry a different prognosis. We performed a cohort study of 349 patients with primary colorectal cancer in whom all their prediagnostic symptoms and investigation results were known. Survival data for 3-8 years after diagnosis were taken from the cancer registry. Six features were studied: rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, constipation, weight loss, and anaemia. Two of these were significantly associated with different staging and mortality. Rectal bleeding as an initial symptom was associated with less advanced staging (odds ratio from one Duke's stage to the next 0.50, 95% confidence interval 0.31, 0.79; P = 0.003) and with reduced mortality (Cox's proportional hazard ratio (HR) 0.56 (0.41, 0.79); P = 0.001. Mild anaemia, with a haemoglobin of 10.0-12.9 g dl(-1), was associated with more advanced staging (odds ratio 2.2 (1.2, 4.3); P = 0.021) and worse mortality (HR 1.5 (0.98, 2.3): P = 0.064). When corrected for emergency admission, sex, and the site of the tumour, the HR for mild anaemia was 1.7 (1.1, 2.6); P = 0.015. No relationship was found between the duration of symptoms and staging or mortality.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available