Functional Deficits and Symptoms of Long-Term Survivors of Colorectal Cancer Treated by Multimodality Therapy Differ by Age at Diagnosis

• Published in: Journal of gastrointestinal surgery 2015-01, Vol.19 (1), p.180-188
• Main Authors: Bailey, Christina E., Cao, Hop S. Tran, Hu, Chung-Yuan, Chang, George J., Feig, Barry W., Rodriguez-Bigas, Miguel A., Nguyen, Sa T., Skibber, John M., You, Y. Nancy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 2014 SSAT Plenary Presentation; Adult; Age; Anxiety; Body image; Cancer therapies; Chemotherapy; Chi-square test; Colorectal cancer; Colorectal Neoplasms - diagnosis; Colorectal Neoplasms - therapy; Combined Modality Therapy; Cross-Sectional Studies; Defecation - physiology; Erectile dysfunction; Fecal incontinence; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Gastroenterology; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Patients; Quality of Life; Radiation therapy; Self image; Sexual disorders; Surgery; Surveys and Questionnaires; Survivors; Time Factors; Young adults
• ISSN: 1091-255X; 1873-4626
• DOI: 10.1007/s11605-014-2645-7

Background With advances in multimodality therapy, colorectal cancer survivors are living longer. However, little is known about the quality of their long-term survival. We investigated the functional outcomes and symptoms among long-term survivors. Methods A cross-sectional study of 1,215 long-term (>5 years) colorectal cancer survivors was conducted using a validated disease-specific questionnaire. Younger onset survivors (18–50 years) were matched 1:2 to later onset survivors (>50 years). Standardized mean scores were compared using one-way ANOVA. Key patient and treatment factors that impact function and symptoms were assessed by multivariate linear regression. Results Eight hundred thirty survivors responded at an interval of 10.8 ± 3 years from diagnosis (68 % response rate). Younger onset survivors underwent more surgery (97.9 vs. 93.6 %, P