Investigation of Clinical Manifestations in Korean Colorectal Cancer Patients

PURPOSE: Early diagnostic work-up in patients with clinical symptoms of colorectal cancer (CRC) is important to achieve good treatment results. In this study, we investigated clinical symptoms when a diagnosis of CRC was made in patients who had a surgical resection, especially focusing on the relevance of constipation to CRC. METHODS: The clinical symptoms of 17,415 CRC patients who had curative surgery from January 2010 to December 2012 were collected from 24 training hospitals of surgery. RESULTS: The number of symptomatic patients before the diagnosis of CRC was 11,085 (63.7%). Hematochezia or melena, abdominal pain, anemia, and constipation were more often found in female than male patients while bowel habit change was more common in male patients. Considering age, bowel habit change and hematochezia or melena were more common in patients younger than 60. Anemia and constipation, however, were more common in patients older than 60. According to the group classification based on age, patients older than 60 had experienced more constipation (P = 0.049). Moreover, patients with constipation tended to have a more advanced disease status (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In patients who had surgery due to CRC, bleeding, abdominal pain, bowel habit change and constipation were the most frequent symptoms before diagnosis. Although whether or not constipation is a cause of CRC is unclear, it is one of the important clinical symptoms that presents in patients with CRC, and patients with a symptom of constipation tend to present with a more advanced CRC stage.