Colorectal cancer resection in the Australian nonagenarian patient

Abstract

Surgical resection in the nonagenarian patient has an acceptable mortality and offers good overall survival.

Colorectal cancer surgery in selected nonagenarians is relatively safe and it is associated with a good long-term survival: an observational study

“…Elective surgery mortality was 4.2%. These results are in accordance with other authors [8,10,12,22], who have reported mortality rates oscillating between 2.1% [8] and 23% [9].…”

“…Only five series have been reported in which nonagenarians with CRC have been exclusively included and most of them with a small number of patients [8][9][10][11][12]. Some other studies have differentiated the characteristics of nonagenarians but in the context of large series that mainly include octogenarians [2,13,14].…”

Never too old to fight cancer? What do we know about colorectal cancer in the elderly?

“…However, similar subtypes are increasingly diagnosed in elderly patients . In the current study it is shown that the Australian nonagenarians indeed present with microsatellite instability and BRAF mutations, associated with these phenotypes. Whether the relatively high percentage of BRAF mutations in this patient group explains the poorer outcomes remains to be investigated.…”

“…The International Society of Geriatric Oncology regularly issues guidelines about optimal treatment of these patients, since the consensus is that most of them are either overtreated or undertreated. In this issue of Colorectal Disease surgical treatment of an Australian cohort of nonagenarians is described . In fact, a number of similar studies has appeared in recent years .…”

Response to ‘Colorectal cancer resection in the Australian nonagenarian patient’

“…assessing 30‐day mortality and overall survival rates in nonagenarians with colorectal cancer. This retrospective study of 121 patients with median age 91 years concluded that surgical resection in the nonagenarian patient had acceptable 30‐day mortality (6.6%) and 1‐, 3‐ and 5‐year overall survival rates (82.6%, 50.2% and 32.3% respectively) .…”