Trends in presentation, treatment and survival of 1777 patients with colorectal cancer over a decade: a Biobank study

Background: Most survival data in colorectal cancer (CRC) is derived from clinical trials or register-based studies. Hospital Biobanks, linked with hospital electronic records, could serve as a data-gathering method based on consecutively collected tumor samples. The aim of this Biobank study was to analyze survival of colorectal patients diagnosed and treated in a single-center university hospital over a period of 12 years, and to evaluate factors contributing to outcome.

Material and methods: A total of 1777 patients with CRC treated during 2001–2012 were identified from the Auria Biobank, Turku, Finland. Longitudinal clinical information was collected from various hospital electronic records and date and cause of death obtained from Statistics Finland.

Results: Cancer-specific, overall and disease-free survival was higher in patients diagnosed during 2004–2008 as compared with patients diagnosed in 2001–2003. Further improvement was not seen during years 2009–2012. Potential factors contributing to the improvement were introduction of multidisciplinary meetings, centralization of rectal cancer surgery, use of adjuvant chemotherapy and systematic preoperative radiotherapy of rectal cancer. The proportion of patients with stage I–IV CRC remained similar over the study period, but a marked decrease in non-metastatic rectal cancer with biopsy only (locally advanced disease) was observed. In stage I–III rectal cancer, Cox multivariate analysis suggested age, comorbidity, R1 resection, T staging and tumor grade as prognostic factors. In colon cancer, prognostic factors were age, comorbidity, gender and presence of lymph node metastases.

Conclusions: Organizational changes in the treatment of CRC patients made since 2004 coincide with improved survival in CRC and a marked reduction in locally advanced rectal cancers. The clinical presentation of CRC has remained similar between 2001 and 2012.