Adjuvant therapy for Dukes C adenocarcinoma of colon

Forty-two patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon, who received surgery between 1975 and 1978 and were to found to have pericolonic fat infiltration and lymph node metastases, were analyzed for disease free period and overall survival. Twenty-one patients had received post-operative X ray therapy, and post-X ray therapy intravenous 5-Fluorouracil adjuvant therapy. Twenty-one patients, matched by age, sex, ethnic origin and site of disease were untreated. The 5 year survival rate for the treated group was 65% compared with 36% for the control group (P greater than 0.2). At 5 years 55% of the treated group were disease free but only 12% of the control group remained disease free (P = 0.04). The significance of this work needs to be established by a randomized and prospectively controlled clinical trial.