[Prognostic factors in colorectal cancer]

We present a retrospective study of 208 colorectal cancers, 131 of them followed during more than 5 years. Overall survival was 38%. We have tried to correlate clinical findings with prognosis and survival. The analyzed parameters have been the following: age, sex, site and size of the tumor, time and cause of surgical treatment, stage of the lesion, cytologic grade of differentiation of the tumor, delay between the presenting symptom and surgery, surgical procedure, local invasion and number of positive lymph nodes. The results show that the main factors related to prognosis are local extension through the intestinal wall and the presence of positive lymph nodes (particularly if more than 4) and, of course, distant metastases.