Cancer of the colon and rectum in high-risk patients

The experience with colorectal cancer at the Denver Veterans Administration Hospital was retrospectively reviewed to characterize the high-risk population with this disease and to determine what impact, if any, screening high-risk patients might have on overall survival rates. The high-risk patients comprised 12 per cent of the overall population with colorectal cancer and did not differ from the latter in terms of age of onset, distribution of tumors, type of symptoms at diagnosis, or survival with a given stage of disease. They did, however, have more stage A and B lesions and a better overall survival than did the general population with colorectal cancer, as a result of screening. The findings suggest that surveillance of high-risk groups is beneficial. Until ways are found to increase the number of patients eligible for inclusion in this group, however, these benefits are unlikely to lead to improved survival of the general population with colorectal cancer.