Superior survival in right-sided versus left-sided colon signet ring cell carcinoma

This study aimed to explore the association of tumor sidedness with the prognosis of patients with colon signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC). Eligible patients were retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 2004 and 2015. Cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between patients with left-sided colon SRCC and those with right-sided lesions. A total of 2660 patients were included, among them, 1983 (74.5%) had right-sided colon SRCC. Compared to patients with left-sided colon SRCC, those who had the right-sided colon SRCC showed higher proportion of white race, female, aged ≥ 65 years, receiving total colectomy and ≥ 4 regional lymph node dissection; while had lower proportion of advanced AJCC stage. Besides, right-sided patients exhibited superior 5-year CSS (32.74% vs. 25.89%, P = 0.001) and OS (27.38% vs. 23.02%, P = 0.024) rates compared with left-sided ones. Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor sidedness was an independent prognostic factor. To be specific, patients with right-sided colon SRCC showed better CSS (HR: 0.873; 95% CI 0.777–0.981; P = 0.023) and OS (HR: 0.838; 95% CI 0.753–0.965; P = 0.002). Moreover, subgroup analysis demonstrated superior CSS and OS for right-sided patients in most subgroups. Tumor sidedness was an independent prognostic indicator for colon SRCC. Besides, patients with right-sided colon SRCC have superior prognosis than those with left-sided lesions.