Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2021; 27(25): 3901-3912
Published online Jul 7, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i25.3901
Clinical characteristics of patients in their forties who underwent surgical resection for colorectal cancer in Korea
Chang Sin Lee, Se-Jin Baek, Jung-Myun Kwak, Jin Kim, Seon-Hahn Kim
Chang Sin Lee, Se-Jin Baek, Jung-Myun Kwak, Jin Kim, Seon-Hahn Kim, Department of Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul 02841, South Korea
Author contributions: Lee CS curated data and wrote this manuscript; Kwak JM, Kim J and Kim SH reviewed the paper; Baek SJ mainly provided the main conceptualization.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Korea University Anam Hospital (No. 2020AN0309).
Informed consent statement: All participants provided informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Se-Jin Baek, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine, Goryeodae-ro 73, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, South Korea. xezin@korea.ac.kr
Received: February 5, 2021
Peer-review started: February 5, 2021
First decision: March 14, 2021
Revised: March 27, 2021
Accepted: May 21, 2021
Article in press: May 21, 2021
Published online: July 7, 2021
Processing time: 150 Days and 2.7 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Globally, the proportion of young patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), especially in their 40s, is increasing, and this rate of increase is very rapid.

Research motivation

Patients with CRC in their 40s have the potential for both late-onset hereditary CRC and early-onset sporadic CRC. However, few studies have analyzed the characteristics of patients with CRC in their 40s.

Research objectives

The main aim of this study was to determine the proportion of patients with CRC in their 40s and to identify their clinical characteristics, especially compared with those in their 30s and 50s.

Research methods

We compared patient and tumor characteristics as well as perioperative outcomes of patients in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who received primary resection for CRC. In addition, the 5-year survivals were compared between the three groups, excluding stage 4.

Research results

In patients with CRC in their 40s, there were significantly more metastatic lesions and a higher TNM stage. K-ras mutations tended to be low in patients in their 40s, and postoperative chemotherapy was frequently performed in them. Excluding stage 4, the 5-year overall and disease-free survivals of CRC patients in their 40s did not differ from those in their 30s and 50s.

Research conclusions

Patients with CRC in their 40s exhibited relatively more metastatic lesions and a more advanced stage, but the oncologic outcomes of patients excluding stage 4 were not inferior compared to those in their 30s and 50s. Therefore, it is necessary to actively perform screening tests for early detection of CRC in those in their 40s.

Research perspectives

More analyses of immunohistochemistry or genetic testing results are needed to complement our results. In addition, future studies are also needed to establish new standards for conducting genetic tests for patients with CRC in their 40s.