Study on Resected Cases of Colon/Rectum Cancer in a Rural Area Adjacent to Hiroshima City

• Published in: JOURNAL OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION OF RURAL MEDICINE Vol. 40; no. 1; pp. 31 - 35
• Main Authors: SASAKI, Noboru, KADO, Sigenobu, KAWAGUCHI, Masaharu, FURUKAWA, Kazuto, NAKAO, Tatsuya, KOHATA, Shuji, SUESHIRO, Masafumi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION OF RURAL MEDICINE 1991
• ISSN: 0468-2513; 1349-7421
• DOI: 10.2185/jjrm.40.31

Study was made on total of 304 cases of cancer of the large intestine resected during the period of 12 years from 1978 to 1989. Colon cancer accounted for 56.8% of the total and rectal cancer 43.2%. There were no sexual differences. Those people aged 50 and older represented 86.0% of the total number of the cases. By age group, those in their 60s topped the list with 27.3%, followed by those in 70s with 24.4%. Almost all the cases (95.1%) were of the patients who had visited the hospital, having noticed symptoms themselves. A very few cases were detected among the people without subjective symptoms when they received group medical Checkups. By region, 39.4% of the colon cancer cases were found in S, followed by A. In the cases of rectum cancer, Rb accounted for 50.7%. Of the total caces, 74.5% had cancer on the left side of the large intestine. Resection rate was 91.5%. The rate of resection leading to cure was 71.8%. Broken down by histological staging, stage I came to 11.7%; stage II, 30.9%; stage III, 21.8%; stage IV, 11.7%; stage V, 23.8%. The 5-year-survival rete averaged 57.1%. In pre-surgery tests, the positive rate of CEA was as low as 46.6%. The positive rate for early cancer was extremely low. Measurement of CEA levels as an auxiliary diagnosis, therefore, did not prove itself to be useful in searching for cancer.