Comparison of 627 patients with right- and left-sided colon cancer in China: Differences in clinicopathology, recurrence, and survival

Objective: Recent studies have reported increased mortality for right-sided colon cancers; however, the results are conflicting for different stage tumors. We examined the differences in clinicopathology between right- and left-sided colon cancers and the re-lationships between colon cancer location (right- and left-side) and 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Methods: We identified patients from 2005 to 2008 with stage Ⅱ/Ⅲ colon cancer who underwent surgery for curative intent. We explored the impact of the tumor location on the postoperative DFS and OS using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Of 627 patients, 50.6% (317/627) had right-sided colon cancer. These patients were more likely to have weight loss, second primary tumor, elevated preoperative carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), increased incidence of non-adenocarcinoma, more poorly differentiated tumors, vascular invasion, defective mismatch repair, and a lighter smoking history (P < 0.05). Right-sided colon