Colon cancer and chemo

Filed in archive News on December 6, 2005

A new reports suggests that not all colon cancer patients are using optimal therapy:

More than a decade after new treatment guidelines for the disease were issued, many patients with advanced colon cancer are not getting chemotherapy after surgery, despite clear-cut evidence it boosts survival, a study found.

Blacks, women and elderly patients were found to be less likely to get chemo, even though such treatment was shown to improve survival in all groups.

About two-thirds of the patients who received chemotherapy in addition to surgery were alive after five years, compared with about half of those who had surgery alone, according to the study in Wednesday's Journal of the american medical association. On average, chemotherapy improved the five-year survival rate by about 16 percent.