Effect of Surgical Starting Time and Season on Prognosis in Octogenarians with Colorectal Cancer: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the effect of surgical starting time and season on the prognosis of octogenarians with colorectal cancer. Patients & methods: A total of 291 patients aged 80 years or above who received elective colectomy for colorectal cancer between January 2007 and December 2018 in the National Cancer Center in China were included. Results: No significant time- or season-dependent difference in overall survival for all clinical stages was found in the study. Comparing perioperative outcomes, the morning group had a longer operative time than the afternoon group (p = 0.03), but no significant difference was found based on the season of colectomy. Conclusion: These findings provide insights into clinical outcomes for colorectal cancer patients aged more than 80 years.

Plain language summary

Recurrent studies have demonstrated that in heart surgery, different surgical starting times can affect the patients’ outcomes, mainly due to the 24-h cyclic variations in heart function. This variability also exists in bowel function. The surgical outcomes of elderly patients aged over 80 years are more susceptible to external factors due to their frailty, so we wanted to compare the differences in prognosis of elderly patients who underwent surgery at different times and seasons.

Tweetable abstract

We analyzed 291 elderly patients from the National Cancer Center in China and conclude that it is safe to start colorectal surgery at any time of the day or in any season for people over 80 years with colorectal cancer.

Keywords::

• colorectal neoplasms
• octogenarians
• propensity score
• surgical season
• surgical starting time

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.future-science.com/doi/suppl/10.4155/fon-2022-1292

Author contributions

Conception and design of the study: G Zhang and X Xu. Data collection and analysis: X Xu and R Zhao. Interpretation of findings, critical review and revision of the manuscript: G Zhang, X Xu and R Zhao. All authors read and approved the final manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This research was funded by the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2021-I2M-C&T-B-050). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. The need for informed consent was waived by the ethics committee due to the retrospective study design.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2021-I2M-C&T-B-050). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.