Mismatch Repair Status Correlates with Survival in Young Adults with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer.

BACKGROUND

Young adults with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) may have higher rates of deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) than older patients. This study sought to assess patterns of MMR-testing and survival among young adult mCRC patients in the National Cancer Database (NCDB), hypothesizing that dMMR correlates with worse survival than in MMR-proficient (pMMR) patients.

METHODS

Stage-IV colorectal cancers were identified in NCDB (2010-2016). Demographic and clinical features were compared between younger (age ≤ 30) and older mCRC patients and tested for association with overall survival. Stage-IV disease without other recorded metastatic sites defined peritoneal metastasis (PM). Fisher-exact tests compared proportions and Cox models tested association with overall survival.

RESULTS

Of 124,587 stage-IV colorectal cancers, 1,123 (0.9%) were in young patients. Young patients were more likely to have mucinous histology, high-grade, rectal primaries, and isolated peritoneal metastases (P < 0.001). Younger patients more often had MMR-testing (29.1 versus 16.6%), with dMMR found at similar rates in young and older patients (21.7 versus 17.1% of those tested, P= 0.4). Despite higher rates of adverse prognostic features, younger patients had better survival (median 20.7 versus 14.8 months, P < 0.001). In MMR-tested patients, dMMR correlated with higher mortality risk compared to pMMR (median 16.6 months versus 25.5 months, P = 0.01). On multivariable analysis, grade and MMR-status remained independently associated with survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Median survival was worse with dMMR by 8.9 months compared to pMMR in young adults with mCRC. Despite higher rates of familial syndromes in young patients and recommendations for universal MMR-testing, over 70% of young mCRC patients had no MMR-status recorded.