Long-term outcomes of laparoscopic surgery in elderly patients with colorectal cancer: A single institutional matched case-control study.

INTRODUCTION

The number of elderly patients with colorectal cancer has gradually increased. Laparoscopic colorectal surgery is widely used to approach colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term outcomes in octogenarians who underwent laparoscopic colorectal surgery for colorectal cancer.

METHODS

This study included 158 patients aged 80 or over who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer between 2010 and 2015. We compared long-term outcomes of a laparoscopic colorectal surgery group with those of an open colorectal surgery group by propensity score matching equalizing factors that could affect prognosis such as prognostic nutritional index and Charlson comorbidity index score.

RESULTS

Forty-eight pairs were selected after propensity score matching. The cancer-specific 5-year survival rate was 97.1% in the laparoscopic colorectal surgery group and 87.6% in the open colorectal surgery group (P = .17). The overall 5-year survival rate was 77.3% in the laparoscopic colorectal surgery group and 73.9% in the open colorectal surgery group (P = .32). The 5-year recurrence-free survival rate was 95.1% in the laparoscopic colorectal surgery group and 85.4% in the open colorectal surgery group (P = .14).

CONCLUSION

Laparoscopic colorectal surgery for octogenarians with colorectal cancer achieves similar oncological outcomes to open colorectal surgery and should be considered as a treatment option.