[Survival in a cohort of patients with rectal cancer]

The aim of our study is to analyze the five-year survival for patients with operated rectal cancer in our clinic during a five-year period (1997-2001).

Our epidemiological clinical study is based on prospective analysis of 196 cases of rectal cancer operated between 1997 and 2001. Survival evaluation was prospective cohort follow-up study. We have used Epiinfo 2000 software package for data analysis.

The five-year survival was 54.08% if we take into account all deceases including other causes and 64.28% for exclusive deaths caused by rectal cancer and metastasis. The survival at 5 years (S5) was: stage A S5 = 85.3%; stage B1 S5 = 76.6%; stage B2 S5 = 71%; stage C S5 = 68.7% and stage D S5 = 8.6%. The follow-up in month (e5) was: stage A e5 = 58, stage B1 e5 = 46; stage B2 e5 = 36, stage C e5 = 20 and stage D e5 = 6. The values for S5 and e5 are in accordance with the literature.

Despite progresses of rectal cancer management, the five-year survival doesn't transcend much over 50%. Because the five-year survival for A stage is 85.3% in our study, we may conclude that at present introducing of screening program represents the only chance for improvement of results.