Oncologic Outcomes of Stage IIIA Colon Cancer for Different Chemotherapeutic Regimens

Purpose: Adjuvant chemotherapy is currently recommended for Stage IIIA colon cancers. This study aimed to elucidate the oncologic outcomes of Stage IIIA colon cancer according to the chemotherapeutic regimen based on a retrospective review.

Methods: From 1995 to 2008, Stage IIIA colon cancer patients were identified from a prospectively maintained database at a single institution. Exclusion criteria were as follows: rectal cancer, another malignancy other than colon cancer, no adjuvant chemotherapy and unknown chemotherapeutic regimen. One hundred thirty-one patients were enrolled in the study, and the clinicopathologic and the oncologic characteristics were analyzed. The number of males was 72, and the number of females was 59; the mean age was 59.5 years (range, 25 to 76 years), and the median follow-up period was 33 months (range, 2 to 127 months).

Results: Of the 131 patients, fluorouracil/leucovorin (FL)/capecitabine chemotherapy was performed in 109 patients, and FOLFOX chemotherapy was performed in 22 patients. When the patients who received FL/capecitabine chemotherapy and the patients who received FOLFOX chemotherapy were compared, there was no significant difference in the clinicopathologic factors between the two groups. The 5-year overall survival and the 5-year disease-free survival were 97.2% and 94.5% in the FL/capecitabine patient group and 95.5% and 90.9% in the FOLFOX patient group, respectively, and no statistically significant differences were noted between the two groups.

Conclusion: Stage IIIA colon cancer showed good oncologic outcomes, and the chemotherapeutic regimen did not seem to affect the oncologic outcome.