[Outcomes of Elderly Patients with Perforated Colorectal Cancer]

We retrospectively investigatedoutcomes in surgically treatedeld erly patients with perforatedcolorectal cancer. The clinicopathological andsurvival data on 54 perforatedcolorectal cancer patients treatedwith surgery were analyzed. They included 12 patients≥75 years old(elderly group)and4 2 patients<75 years old(non-elderly group). There were no significant differences in terms of clinicopathological features, the severity of peritonitis and classification of sepsis, the development of disseminatedintravascular coagulopathy, andmortality within 30days between the 2 groups. The frequency of using chemo- therapy for Stage IV disease did not differ significantly in the 2 groups. The use of adjuvant chemotherapy for Stage II / III disease was significantly less frequent in elderly group than in non-elderly group(p=0.01). The progression-free and overall survival time for Stage II / III diseases did not significantly differ between the 2 groups. In conclusion, the prognosis of elderly patients with perforated colorectal cancer seems to be equivalent to that of the non-elderly patients. The indication of (adjuvant)chemotherapy may be controversial in such elderly patients.