Prolonged survival in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer

We compared the survival between 46 patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) and 1185 cases with sporadic colorectal cancer, who underwent a resection for the disease between 1972 and 1995. In a univariate analysis, the survival correlated well with stage, curability, size and the presence of HNPCC. Patients with HNPCC had a longer survival than those with sporadic colorectal cancer (P=0.0277). A multivariate analysis suggested that stage, curability, age, and HNPCC were the effective combination of factors predictive of survival. The above findings are thus expected to have a major influence on the evaluation of clinical trials in patients with colorectal cancer.