Clinicopathological Characteristics and Prognosis of Patients According to Recurrence Time After Curative Resection for Colorectal Cancer

Purpose: To investigate clinicopathological features in patients with recurrent colorectal cancer within 1 yearand more than 1 year after curative resection. Materials and
Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 103 patientswith disease recurrence before versus after 1 year of resection. Thirty-two patients (31%) were diagnosed withrecurrence less than 1 year after curative resection for colorectal cancer (early recurrence) and 71 (69%) after morethan 1 year (non-early recurrence).
Results: The early recurrence group displayed a significantly lower overallsurvival rate for both colon cancer (p=0, 01) and rectal cancer (p<0.001). Inadequate lymph node dissection wasa significant predictor for early relapse. There were no statistically significant differences in clinicopathologicalvariables such as age, sex, primary tumor localization, stage, depth of invasion, lymphovascular invasion andperineural invasion between the early and non-early recurrence groups. However, a K-ras mutation subgroupwas significantly associated with early recurrence (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Poor survival is associated with earlyrecurrence for patients undergoing resection for non-metastatic colorectal cancer, as well as K-ras mutation.