Adenocarcinoma of the large intestine in young adults

Twenty-eight cases of adenocarcinoma of the large intestine in patients under 30 years of age, admitted to the National Cancer Institute of Milan from 1955 to 1975, are reported. Fourteen patients underwent radical surgery: of these, 8 are alive, and the survival times range from 8 months to 17 years. The 14 patients who received pallative therapy only all died within 15 months. The degree of infiltration of the intestinal wall seemed to be the most significant prognostic factor. The worse prognosis for the neoplasia in young adults with respect to older people, already reported in the literature and confirmed by our data, seems to be correlated, more than with the histologic type or biologic behavior of the tumor, with the diagnostic delay, which results in more advanced forms, with respect to those seen in older patients, being observed at clinical examination.