[Benefit of adjuvant 5-fluorouracil based chemotherapy for colon cancer: a retrospective cohort study].
BACKGROUND
Multiple clinical trials have demonstrated the benefits of adjuvant 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy for patients with resectable colon cancer (CC), especially in stage III.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical characteristics of a cohort of CC patients treated at a single university hospital in Chile since 2002, and to investigate if chemotherapy had an effect on survival rates.


METHODS
Review of a tumor registry of the hospital. Medical records of patients with CC treated between 2002 and 2012 were reviewed. Death certificates from the National Identification Service were used to determine mortality. Overall survival was described using the Kaplan-Meier method. A multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model was also used.


RESULTS
A total of 370 patients were treated during the study period (202 in stage II and 168 in stage III). Adjuvant chemotherapy was administered to 22 and 70% of patients in stage II and III respectively. The median follow-up period was 4.6 years. The 5-year survival rate for stage II patients was 79% and there was no benefit observed with adjuvant chemotherapy. For stage III patients, the 5-year survival rate was 81% for patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy, compared to 56% for those who did not receive chemotherapy (hazard ratio (HR): 0.29; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.15-0.56). The benefit of chemotherapy was found to persist after adjustment for other prognostic variables (HR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.23-0.94).


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with colon cancer in stage III who received adjuvant chemotherapy had a better overall survival.
Sebastián
S
Mondaca
Constanza
C
Villalón
José Luis
JL
Leal
Álvaro
Á
Zúñiga
Felipe
F
Bellolio
Oslando
O
Padilla
Silvia
S
Palma
Marcelo
M
Garrido
Bruno
B
Nervi
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
D005472:Fluorouracil