title: Clinical presentation predicts the outcome of patients with colon cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To elucidate the relationship between clinical presentation and outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  A single institution retrospective chart review of patients admitted with the diagnosis of colon cancer. We used univariate and a multivariate analysis to identify symptoms association with mortality. An odds ratio based clinical score was created to evaluate the contribution of the quality of symptoms to outcome. Primary measure of outcome was survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study period, 236 patients met the inclusion criteria. Overall survival was 60.6%, mean follow-up 3.0 years. A bivariate analysis showed that increasing number of symptoms is not associated with mortality. However, a symptom-specific analysis performed using a logistic regression model controlling for age, stage and the duration of complaints revealed that the presence of melena was independently associated with mortality [P = 0.04, odds ratio (OR) 7.4], while rectal bleeding was associated with survival (P = 0.004, OR 3.9). Applying the proposed clinical score to an receiver operating characteristic curve showed that score > 1 had a strong association with mortality. The same logistic regression model was applied. The results showed that a score > 1 was an independent predictor of mortality (P < 0.001) and associated with node-positive disease (P = 0.008).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The quality of symptoms rather than quantity is correlated with outcome among patients with colon cancer. The proposed clinical scoring system may correctly predict the patient's outcome.
authors.affiliation: Offir Ben-Ishay, Zvi Peled, Amira Othman, Eran Brauner, Yoram Kluger, Department of General Surgery, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa 33271, Israel.
authors.forename: Offir
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ben-Ishay
authors.forename: Zvi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Peled
authors.forename: Amira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Othman
authors.forename: Eran
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brauner
authors.forename: Yoram
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kluger
keywords: Colon cancer; Mortality; Symptoms