title: Comparison of colorectal and gastric cancer: survival and prognostic factors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Gastric and colorectal cancers are the most common gastrointestinal malignancies in Iran. We aim to compare the survival rates and prognostic factors between these two cancers.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 1873 patients with either gastric or colorectal cancer who were registered in one referral cancer registry center in Tehran, Iran. All patients were followed from their time of diagnosis until December 2006 (as failure time). Survival curves were calculated according to the Kaplan-Meier Method and compared by the Log-rank test. Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors was carried out using the Cox proportional hazard model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 1873 patients, there were 746 with gastric cancer and 1138 with colorectal cancer. According to the Kaplan-Meier method 1, 3, 5, and 7-year survival rates were 71.2, 37.8, 25.3, and 19.5%, respectively, in gastric cancer patients and 91.1, 73.1, 61, and 54.9%, respectively, in patients with colorectal cancer. Also, univariate analysis showed that age at diagnosis, sex, grade of tumor, and distant metastasis were of prognostic significance in both cancers (P < 0.0001). However, in multivariate analysis, only distant metastasis in colorectal cancer and age at diagnosis, grade of tumor, and distant metastasis in colorectal cancer were identified as independent prognostic factors influencing survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to our findings, survival is significantly related to histological differentiation of tumor and distant metastasis in colorectal cancer patients and only to distant metastasis in gastric cancer patients.
authors: Research Center of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran. b_moghimi_de@yahoo.com
authors: Bijan
authors: B
authors: Moghimi-Dehkordi
authors: Azadeh
authors: A
authors: Safaee
authors: Mohammad R
authors: MR
authors: Zali