Colorectal cancer survival in Manizales, Colombia, 2008-2017: a population-based study

OBJECTIVE: To determine 5-year survival in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) according to patient and tumor characteristics. METHODS: Longitudinal study based on incident cases of invasive CRC between 2008 and 2017 captured by the Manizales Population-based Cancer Registry (n=850). Patients were followed up to August 24(th), 2021. Cause-specific survival and net survival were calculated for sociodemographic and tumor characteristics, and Cox multivariate was fitted. RESULTS: Fifty-five percent of cases occurred in women. The most frequent histological type was adenocarcinoma (78.2%). The most frequent locations were rectum (32.0%), ascending colon (16.6%), and sigmoid (16.2%). Twenty-five percent of cases were diagnosed in stage IV. There were 567 deaths due to CRC. The 5-year specific survival was 45.8% (95%CI 42.4–49.3), with independent effects for age (HR=1.83; 95%CI 1.26–2.65 age >75 years vs. <50 years) and advanced clinical stage (HR=2.5 and HR 5.7 for stages III and IV vs. stage I, respectively). Lower survival was observed in patients of medium socioeconomic status compared with higher socioeconomic status (HR=1.52; 95%CI 1.08–2.14), but not in patients of low socioeconomic status. No independent effects were observed for the health insurance regime. CONCLUSIONS: In Manizales, approximately 5 out of 10 patients with invasive CRC die in the first five years after diagnosis, with a lower survival in patients older than 75 years, from medium socioeconomic level and diagnosed in advanced clinical stages.