The Relationship Between Tumor Location With Relapse, Prognosis and Survival in Patients With Stage 3 Colorectal Cancers

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer among all cancers and it is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. There are many factors that affect prognosis in colorectal cancers. Recent studies showed the effect of tumor location on prognosis. There are differences in anatomic, embryological, histopathological and genetic differences between right and left colon cancers. The relationship between tumor localization in stage 4 disease and prognosis and treatment response is better known; there are not enough studies on stage 3 disease. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the relationship between overall survival (OS) and recurrence rate with tumor localization in patients with stage 3 colon cancer. Patients diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer and followed up at the Akdeniz University Medical Faculty were included. 231 patients' information was accessed retrospectively using the hospital database. Patients were grouped into right and left colon cancers similar to those in the literature according to tumor localization, and data were analyzed. 171 (74%) patients had left colon tumors; whereas right colon tumor was in 60 (26%). There was no significant differences between the tumor location and recurrence rates of the patients (p: 0,82). The mean OS for left colon cancers was 97.5±6.6 (95% CI, 84.6-110.5) months, for right colon cancers it was 74.3±5.7 (95% CI, 63.0-85, 5) months. Although the mean duration of OS was higher in left colon cancers, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups (p: 0,38). A significant correlation was found between the number of metastatic lymph nodes and mean OS, especially in left colon cancers (p: 0.015). As a result; we believe that there may be a relationship between tumor localization and prognosis in colon cancer. In our study, the relationship between tumor localization and survival in stage 3 disease could not be shown clearly. Future work in this regard may be useful in clinical practice. Key Words: Stage 3 colon cancer, Prognosis, Tumor localization