Long-term outcomes and prognostic factors of young patients with mucinous and signet-ring cell colorectal cancer

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to assess the clinico-pathological features and prognosis of mucinous adenocarcinoma (MAC) and signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRC) in young colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the patient records of young patients with MAC and SRC (aged ≤ 40 years) treated at the Cancer Hospital of China Medical University from January 2006 to December 2013. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank testing were performed to estimate overall survival (OS). Subsequently a Cox proportional hazard model was used to calculate hazard ratios for the risk of death. RESULTS: A total of 90 young CRC patients (MAC = 69 and SRC = 21) were included in the analysis during the study period. The overall cumulative 5-year OS rate was 56.6 ±6%. Estimated 5-year OS was 58.1 ±7.7% for MAC and 31.3 ±12.9% for SRC (p = 0.018). On univariate analysis, metastatic disease, AJCC stage, adjuvant chemotherapy (CT), cycles of adjuvant CT, surgery type, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels, and histologic type were significant prognostic factors for OS. In multivariate analysis, preoperative CEA levels and cycles of adjuvant CT were found to be independent prognostic factors for overall survival (hazard ratio = 2.47; 95% CI: 1.06–5.78, p = 0.037; hazard ratio = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.05–0.62, p = 0.007, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: A greater proportion of young patients with MAC and SRC present with advanced disease. Young patients with SRC have poorer prognosis than MAC. Preoperative CEA levels and cycles of adjuvant CT are two independent predictors of overall survival for young CRC patients with MAC and SRC.