COLORECTAL CANCER IN THE ELDERLY. IS THERE A ROLE FOR SAFE AND CURATIVE SURGERY?

Background: Recent reports place colorectal cancer (CRC) as the third most common cancer for both sexes. Elderly patients are often viewed as high‐risk surgical candidates with high rates of emergency presentations and perioperative mortality. The aim of our study was to examine the characteristics and perioperative morbidity and mortality rates of elderly patients presented to CRC surgery. Methods: We retrospectively studied 248 patients who underwent surgery for CRC at our institution between July 2003 and December 2005. Risk factors included sex, age, cancer localization, Dukes’ and TNM classification, blood transfusion, preoperative Physiologic and Operative Severity Score for the enUmeration of Mortality and Morbidity score and mode of presentation. Primary outcome was perioperative death. Results: The study consisted of 143 men and 105 women. One hundred and thirty‐four (54%) patients were more than 75 years of age. In the two older groups, cancer was more common in the proximal colon than in the youngest age group (P = 0.001). Of the 25 resections carried out as emergency, 20 were in those who were more than 75 years of age (P