Is colorectal cancer a more aggressive disease in young patients? A population-based study from the Czech Republic

Introduction: The incidence of colorectal cancer in young patients is increasing. The goal of this study was to investigate whether clinicopathological features and survival differed between young, middle-aged and elderly patients.

Methods: The Czech National Cancer Registry was searched to identify all cases of colorectal cancer between 1982 and 2014. Three subgroups of patients were created: young patients, defined as being between 18 and 40 years of age, middle-aged patients, defined as being between 41 and 74 years of age, and elderly patients, defined as being over the age of 75 years.

Results: A total of 192,241 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer between the years 1982 and 2014 were included in the study. Out of these, 3,287 patients (1.7%) were between 18 and 40 years of age, 134,139 patients (69.8%) were between 41 and 74 years of age and 54,815 patients (28.5%) were 75 years of age or older. The young patients had a higher incidence of mucinous adenocarcinoma and signet ring cell carcinoma, more advanced disease and more rectal tumours than elderly patients. Nonetheless, young patients received treatment more frequently and had better cancer-specific survival than the older patients.

Conclusion: The better prognosis in young patients is presumably due to their better physiological reserve and lower incidence of comorbidities. Efforts should be made in younger patients to diagnose early and treat aggressively.