A prognostic audit in colorectal cancer: between the clinical realities and the therapeutic principles

A clinical series of 137 cases of colorectal cancer (98 + 39) was admitted in the IVth Surgical Clinic between 1987-1996 (double compared to the previous decade), consisting of 101 men and 36 women with an average age of 62. The diagnosis was established by physical examination (43 cases, most of them acutely obstructed), completed by biological, radiological and histologic examination of the surgically removed tumours. The pre- and postoperative staging revealed a large number of advanced forms: stage I--6 cases (4.3%), stage II--33 cases (263%), stage III--52 cases (36.5%) and stage IV--46 cases (32.3%). Surgery was performed on 118 patients, the tumours being removed by different types of resections according to location in 81 cases (operative rate of 86.1% and resectability rate of 59.1%, both being higher compared to the previous decade 56.8% of the surgical procedures were palliative and 41 patients (34%) underwent curative resections. The postoperative morbidity and mortality rate was 30.5% and, respectively 4.3% (5 deceased). The long-term survival followed on 44 cases revealed that only 20.3% were alive after 5 years from the operation.