Chemotherapy after colon cancer surgery linked with better survival

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Patients receiving chemotherapy following surgery, following recommendations, are more likely to survive, according to a new study.
In 1990, the National Institutes of Health recommended that adjuvant chemotherapy - that is, given after surgery - should be offered to all patients with stage III colon cancer. Now researchers at the National Cancer Institute report a study on how far this recommendation has been followed.

The study covered nearly 86,000 patients followed from 1990 to 2002. There was an increase in the use of adjuvant chemotherapy from 39 per cent in 1990 to 64 per cent in 2002. Use was lower among blacks, females and the elderly. The use of adjuvant chemotherapy did, as hoped, lead to an increase in survival rates, compared to non-use. The improvement was eight per cent in 1991 and had risen to 16 per cent in 1997. Adjuvant chemotherapy improves the chances of survival as much in older patients as it does in younger ones. But its benefits are not as great in blacks or those with high-grade cancers. Further research is now needed to see how adjuvant chemotherapy with newer drugs such as irinotecan and oxaliplatin affects survival.

Source
Journal of the American Medical Association 7th December 2005 Volume 294 pages 2703-2711