Survival for colon and rectal cancer in Estonia: Role of staging and treatment

Figures & data

Table I. Characteristics of the 1997 colorectal cancer cohort in Estonia.

	Colon		Rectum
	No	%	No	%
Total	337	100.0	209	100.0
Sex
Men	130	38.6	116	55.5
Women	207	61.4	93	44.5
Age group
<65	122	36.2	79	37.8
65–74	125	37.1	76	36.4
75+	90	26.7	54	25.8
Subsite (colon)
Cecum	36	10.7
Appendix	1	0.3
Ascending colon	47	13.9
Hepatic flexure	19	5.6
Transverse colon	31	9.2
Splenic flexure	7	2.1
Descending colon	24	7.1
Sigmoid colon	170	50.4
Colon, unspecified	2	0.6
Subsite (rectum)
Rectosigmoid junction			23	11.0
Rectum			186	89.0
Stage group
I	36	10.7	23	11.0
II	107	31.8	56	26.8
III	62	18.4	46	22.0
IV	104	30.9	62	29.7
Unknown	28	8.3	22	10.5

Table II. Diagnostics and treatment by stage in the 1997 colorectal cancer cohort in Estonia.

			Stage group
			I		II		III		IV
	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%
Colon
Total number of cases	337	100.0	36	100.0	107	100.0	62	100.0	104	100.0
Surgery*
Radical surgery	164	48.7	31	86.1	95	88.8	38	61.3	0	0.0
Palliative or incomplete	93	27.6	1	2.8	7	6.5	14	22.6	68	65.4
No surgery	56	16.6	1	2.8	2	1.9	7	11.3	32	30.8
Surgical intent unknown	24	7.1	3	8.3	3	2.8	3	4.8	4	3.9
Total lymph nodes examined^¤
1–4	122	74.4	18	58.1	79	83.2	25	65.8
5–8	13	7.9	3	9.7	4	4.2	6	15.8
9–11	1	0.6	0	0.0	1	1.1	0	0.0
12+	3	1.8	0	0.0	2	2.1	1	2.6
Unknown	25	15.2	10	32.3	9	9.5	6	15.8
Chemotherapy
Yes	70	20.8	0	0.0	7	6.5	21	33.9	40	38.5
No	244	72.4	35	97.2	91	85.1	34	54.8	61	58.7
Unknown	23	6.8	1	2.8	9	8.4	7	11.3	3	2.9
Rectum
Total number of cases	209	100.0	23	100.0	56	100.0	46	100.0	62	100.0
Surgery*
Radical surgery	99	47.4	21	91.3	53	94.6	25	54.4	0	0.0
Palliative or incomplete	55	26.3	0	0.0	2	3.6	13	28.3	38	61.3
No surgery	51	24.4	2	8.7	1	1.8	8	17.4	23	37.1
Surgical intent unknown	4	1.9	0	0.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	1.6
Total lymph nodes examined^¤
1–4	70	70.7	16	76.2	39	73.6	15	60.0
5–8	13	13.1	2	9.5	6	11.3	5	20.0
9–11	1	1.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	1	4.0
12+	2	2.0	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	8.0
Unknown	13	13.1	3	14.3	8	15.1	2	8.0
Chemotherapy
Yes	51	24.4	0	0.0	3	5.4	21	45.7	26	41.9
No	153	73.2	23	100.0	51	91.1	24	52.2	34	54.8
Unknown	5	2.4	0	0.0	2	3.6	1	2.2	2	3.2
Radiotherapy
Adjuvant	16	7.7	1	4.4	2	3.6	6	13.0	6	9.7
Neoadjuvant	20	9.6	7	30.4	5	8.9	6	13.0	2	3.2
No	172	82.3	15	65.2	48	85.7	34	73.9	54	87.1
Unknown	1	0.5	0	0.0	1	1.8	0	0.0	0	0.0

*Definitions: Radical surgery = stage I–III operated cases with primary tumour entirely resected; Palliative or incomplete surgery = stage I–III operated cases with primary tumour not entirely resected or stage IV operated cases; Surgical intent unknown = surgery performed, not known if radical, incomplete or palliative, or unknown if surgery performed or not (1 case)

^¤Among radically operated cases

Figure 1. Relative survival of patients with colon and rectal cancer diagnosed in Estonia in 1997.

Table III. Relative survival in the 1997 colorectal cancer cohort in Estonia.

	Colon						Rectum
	1-year		5-year		10-year		1-year		5-year		10-year
	%	95% CI	%	95% CI	%	95% CI	%	95% CI	%	95% CI	%	95% CI
Crude	63	58–68	51	44–58	50	42–58	66	59–73	38	30–46	38	29–49
Age-standardised*	63	49–74	51	35–65	52	33–72	66	48–78	37	21–55	39	19–65
Sex
Male	69	60–77	50	39–61	53	39–68	72	62–80	41	30–53	43	30–58
Female	60	52–66	51	43–59	47	38–57	59	48–69	34	23–46	33	21–47
Stage
I	93	77–100	103	80–117	115	82–141	101	77–105	100	71–116	104	66–133
II	93	86–98	79	67–89	77	62–92	90	77–97	66	48–82	70	47–93
III	81	68–90	66	49–80	61	42–80	82	67–92	30	16–46	27	12–45
IV	19	12–27	2	0–7	0		32	21–44	4	1–13	2	0–11
Unknown	31	15–50	26	9–48	16	3–42	33	14–54	14	2–37	18	3–48
Surgery^¤
Radical	95	89–99	90	81–98	90	78–102	97	90–101	71	58–82	73	56–90
Not radical	38	29–47	16	9–24	12	6–22	53	39–66	11	4–21	7	2–18
No surgery	21	11–33	6	1–19	0		20	10–33	3	0–15	5	0–22

*ICSS standard population 1

^¤Definitions: Radical surgery = stage I–III operated cases with primary tumour entirely resected; Not radical surgery = all other operated cases (palliative, incomplete or unknown intent, including 1 case with unknown surgical status)