Gender Disparities in Short-Term and Long-Term Colon Cancer Specific Survival

Introduction: The incidence of colon cancer is reported to be higher in males than females, but the gender disparities in colon cancer survival has not be thoroughly evaluated. The gender difference based on stage of the cancer is also unknown. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the gender disparities in short-term and long-term colon cancer survival. The secondary objective is to evaluate the gender disparities based on stage of the tumor. Methods: The data was collected from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of National Cancer Institute. All patients with colon cancer with known stage and gender were identified from 2004 to 2010. Short-term (1year) and long-term (5year) colon cancer specific survival was calculated using Kaplan Meier survival analysis. Multivariate Cox regression was performed to obtain hazard ratio. Results: Of a total of 109,605 patients; 53,801 (49.1%) were males and 55,804 (50.9%) were females. Age, race, marital status, location of tumor, grade of tumor, histology and stage of tumor was shown to significantly influence the survival. Females have significantly better 1-year survival (7%) and 5-year survival (8%) than males (Table 1). There were no significant gender disparities in 1-year and 5-year survival for stage 0 and Stage 2B tumors; 1-year survival for stage 3C tumors; and 5-year survival for 3A tumors. At all other stages, females have better odds of survival than males. For stage 3A tumors females have 38% better odds of 1-year survival than males (Table 2). Conclusion: Gender disparities exist in colon cancer survival. Females have overall better odds of survival than males. Further studies are required to explore the causes of these gender disparities.175_A Figure 1. Short-term and long-term Colon cancer survival: Multivariate Cox Regression175_B Figure 2. Short-term and long-term Colon cancer survival by stage of cancer: Multivariate Cox Regression