Colorectal cancer survival in Manizales, Colombia, 2008-2017: a population-based study

To determine 5-year survival in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) according to patient and tumor characteristics.

Longitudinal study based on incident cases of invasive CRC between 2008 and 2017 captured by the Manizales Population-based Cancer Registry (n=850). Patients were followed up to August 24th, 2021. Cause-specific survival and net survival were calculated for sociodemographic and tumor characteristics, and Cox multivariate was fitted.

Fifty-five percent of cases occurred in women. The most frequent histological type was adenocarcinoma (78.2%). The most frequent locations were rectum (32.0%), ascending colon (16.6%), and sigmoid (16.2%). Twenty-five percent of cases were diagnosed in stage IV. There were 567 deaths due to CRC. The 5-year specific survival was 45.8% (95%CI 42.4-49.3), with independent effects for age (HR=1.83; 95%CI 1.26-2.65 age >75 years vs. <50 years) and advanced clinical stage (HR=2.5 and HR 5.7 for stages III and IV vs. stage I, respectively). Lower survival was observed in patients of medium socioeconomic status compared with higher socioeconomic status (HR=1.52; 95%CI 1.08-2.14), but not in patients of low socioeconomic status. No independent effects were observed for the health insurance regime.

In Manizales, approximately 5 out of 10 patients with invasive CRC die in the first five years after diagnosis, with a lower survival in patients older than 75 years, from medium socioeconomic level and diagnosed in advanced clinical stages.