Purpose: To evaluate the clinicopathological features of and prognosis associated with sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC) in Japanese patients younger than 40 years old.
Methods: The subjects of this study were patients with sporadic stage 0-III CRC, who underwent curative resection between 2004 and 2012 at the Cancer Institute Hospital. Clinicopathological characteristics and survival were compared between the young (<40 years; n = 81) and older groups (≥40 years; n = 2257).
Results: The median age was 36 years in the young group and 64 years in the older group. Young patients had a lower incidence of right-sided colon cancer (14 vs 28 %) and a higher incidence of rectal cancer (47 vs 32 %; P < 0.0001). The number of retrieved lymph nodes was significantly higher in the young group than in the older group (P = 0.0049). The young patients had similar overall survival and relapse-free survival to their older counterparts, except for overall survival in stage II patients (P = 0.0229). However, multivariate analysis indicated that age was not an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in patients with stage II CRC.
Conclusions: Young Japanese patients with sporadic CRC have unique characteristics such as a high incidence of rectal cancer and similar pathological features; however, they appear to have comparable survival to older patients.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Prognosis; Sporadic; Young.