Intensive post-operative surveillance is associated with improved survival among patients with late stage (stage IIB and stage III) colon cancer. Researchers now report that early-stage colon cancer patients experience similar benefits from close follow-up after colon cancer surgery, according to a study published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Scientists from the M.D. Anderson Orlando Cancer Center and their colleagues performed a secondary analysis of data from the Clinical Outcomes of Surgical Therapy trial to test their hypothesis that patients with stage I and stage IIA colon cancer would benefit from intensive post-operative surveillance. They found that patients with early-stage colon cancer have similar sites of recurrence as late-stage patients. In addition, they discovered that early-stage colon cancer patients received similar benefit from post-recurrent therapy as late-stage patients.

The scientists found that salvage rates for early- and late-stage colon cancer patients with recurrence were similar. Based on their findings, the researchers suggest that it would be appropriate to implement surveillance guidelines for early-stage colon cancer patients.

Source:

JCO Early Release, published online ahead of print June 29, 2009.