does the prognosis of colorectal cancer vary with tumor site?

aim : the aim of this study was to compare prognostic factors between colon and rectal cancers. background : prognosis of colorectal cancer (crc) may depend on the anatomical site. patients and methods : a total of 1219 patients with crc diagnosis according to the pathology report of rcgld cancer registry, from 1 january 2002 to 1 october 2007, were entered into the study. demographic and clinico-pathological factors were analyzed using survival analysis. results : from age at diagnosis, colon cancer had significantly better survival than rectal cancer (multivariate hazard ratio (mvhr)=0.24; 95% confidence interval (ci) =(0.074-0.77)). other factors, including marital status (mvhr =1.78; 95% ci =(0.33-9.62)), body mass index (bmi) (mvhr =1.21 and 1.54;  95% ci =(.30-4.85) and (.44-5.4) respectively for 30 bmi groups), pathologic stage (mvhr =.64; 95% ci =(.21-1.98)) and alcohol history (mvhr =4.86; 95% ci =(.67-35.14)) were not significantly different between the two patient group but suggested a possible effect upon prognosis. overall survival in rectum was better than that of colon. conclusion : our findings support this hypothesis that prognosis of crc varies with tumor site.