RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies in the Western World and in Israel. Most patients with colon cancer are older than 50 years of age. There is no consensus in the literature regarding the behavior of this disease in young patients. AIM: The aim of the present study is to compare clinical and ic pathological features of colon cancer between young and sold patients. METHODS: All clinical and pathological characteristics of 200 patients with colon cancer treated at our center during the period 2001-2006 were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Twenty five patients (12.5%) were <50 years age (young patients) at diagnosis (mean age 41 years) and 175 were >50 years (mean age 68 years). Males were 56% of the young group and 60.1% of the old one. Arab patients were 52% of the young group, although their total number was 35 of the 200 patients. No significant difference was found in the stage of tumor at diagnosis between the two groups. Histopathological grade 3 tumors were found in 33.3% of young versus 7.7% in old patients. Surgery and chemotherapy were performed in 96% and 88% versus 95.4% and 69.7% in the two groups respectively. In a median follow-up period of 96 months, 35% of young patients died of their disease compared to 33.1% of the old patients. CONCLUSIONS: Other than histological grade, no difference was found in colon cancer features and survival of young compared to old patients. Further studies with higher numbers of patients are suggested to clarify our findings.