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90th Annual Meeting Abstracts
Colorectal Cancer in a Young Population: 10-year Experience at a Community Academic Hospital
*Tiffany T Fancher, MD, *Laila Rashidi, BS, *Juan Sanchez, MD, *Michael S Ajemian, MD
St. Mary's Hospital, Waterbury, CT
Objective: The incidence of colorectal cancer in young patients is rising. This study examines patients aged 50 years and younger diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Design: Retrospective chart review
Setting: Community Academic Hospital
Patients (or Other Participants): Patients aged 50 years and under at the time of colorectal cancer diagnosis
Interventions (if any)
Main Outcome Measure(s): Information reviewed included demographics, clinical and pathological staging, surgical management, therapy, death or last follow-up. T-Test and Kaplan-Meier methods were used with a value of p<0.05 considered significant.
Results: Forty-six cases, aged 50 years and under at time of diagnosis, were identified. Twenty-six (57%) females and twenty (43%) males with a mean age of 43. Young men had a significantly higher presenting stage than women (p<0.05). The majority of men and women presented with the complaint of rectal bleeding. Men had a significantly higher incidence of smoking. While not significantly different, women had a higher incidence of family history. Young female patients were more likely to have left-sided colon cancer (65%) compared to men who had 35%. 96% of patients underwent surgical resection and 14 patients died.
Conclusions: Colorectal cancer in patients younger than 51 years of age is rare and is often advanced when discovered. Screening should be aggressive in young patients that have rectal bleeding, especially young male smokers. Sigmoidoscopy is not an adequate diagnostic tool, because the majority of these young patients have left-sided colon cancers and are often condemned to a higher presenting stage.
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