Overall survival comparing laparoscopic to open surgery for right-sided colon cancer: propensity score inverse...

This retrospective cohort study reports on overall survival and short-term complications, comparing laparoscopic to open resection for right-sided colon cancers. It is one of the largest studies in the field with generalizable population-level results.

This study on right sided colon cancers used prospectively collected administrative data linked to a death registry over 5 years from 2014 to 2018. Exclusion criteria were private patients, patients aged less than 10 years, synchronous and metachronous cancers. Propensity score weighting was used to balance cohorts and Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the hazard of death. In addition, logistic regression analysis was used to assess secondary outcomes. For completeness, unweighted data was similarly analysed.

There were 3603 patients identified for the analysis: 1729 open patients and 1874 laparoscopic patients. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis of the weighted data showed no evidence of a statistically significant effect of laparoscopic surgery compared to open surgery on overall survival for right-sided colon cancers (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.71-1.04, P = 0.112). The weighted data showed lower odds of prolonged length of stay, return to theatre and discharge destination other than home in the laparoscopic cohort compared to the open cohort. There was no difference in inpatient mortality. Unweighted results were similar.

This study validates the use of laparoscopic surgery for right-sided colon cancer, showing similar long-term overall survival and inpatient mortality compared to open surgery. It is superior to open surgery for the short-term outcomes of LOS, return to theatre and discharge destination other than home.