title: What factors influence 10-year survival after curative resection of a colorectal carcinoma?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ten-year survival rates are only rarely reported and frequently include a large proportion of censored data-that is, most of the patients have not survived the 10 years. We therefore selected patients in a prospectively maintained, hospital-based tumor register who had been operated on for colorectal carcinoma (CRC) more than 10 years earlier and who were classified as long-term survivors.
  
  
  METHODS
  For 589 consecutive CRC patients who underwent R0 resection in the period 1990-1998, we compared prognosis-relevant characteristics and calculated the survival rate as a function of age, sex, location of the tumor, general state of health, urgency of the operation, and pT and pN class. All patients were observed until their death or until at least 10 years after resection. Patients who died of other causes were censored. Overall survival and relative survival (the latter based on tumor-related death) were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 10-year survivors were more often female (not significant), younger (p < 0.001), in good general health (p < 0.001), had undergone elective resection (p < 0.001), and had early-stage tumors (p < 0.001). In the univariate analysis emergency operation, impaired general health, invasion beyond the muscularis propria, and lymph-node metastasis were found to reduce relative survival. In the multivariate analysis, location, emergency resection, pT, and pN were found to be statistically independent risk factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Long-term freedom from tumor recurrence, like-short-term, is influenced largely by factors that are beneficially influenced by early recognition. The patient's age at resection is immaterial.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, St.-Agnes Hospital, Barloer Weg 125, 46397 Bocholt, Germany. t.ueberrueck@st-agnes-bocholt.de
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueberrueck
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wurst
authors.forename: Falk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rauchfuß
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Knösel
authors.forename: Utz
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Settmacher
authors.forename: Annelore
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Altendorf-Hofmann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003082:Colectomy; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012007:Rectum / Q000601:surgery*; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D017741:Survivors; D016896:Treatment Outcome