TY - JOUR
T1 - Survival associated with 5-fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy among elderly patients with node-positive colon cancer
AU - Sundararajan, Vijaya
AU - Mitra, Nandita
AU - Jacobson, Judith S.
AU - Grann, Victor R.
AU - Heitjan, Daniel F.
AU - Neugut, Alfred I.
PY - 2002/3/5
Y1 - 2002/3/5
N2 - Background: Randomized clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of adjuvant 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy after surgical resection of node-positive colon cancer. Although this treatment became the standard in 1990 following a National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference, among those at least 65 years of age it is less likely to be offered to older or nonwhite patients. Objective: To determine the association between 5-FU-based chemotherapy and survival in older patients. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Combined database of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program and Medicare. Patients: 4768 patients 65 years of age or older who received a diagnosis of node-positive colon cancer from 1992 to 1996, were covered by Medicare Parts A and B, and resided in the population covered by the SEER program. Measurements: Propensity scores to control for known predictors of receiving treatment, Cox proportional hazards models to assess the association of 5-FU therapy with survival, and sensitivity analyses to estimate the possible effects of unknown confounders. Results: Fifty-two percent of patients received 5-FU therapy. For this sample, the hazard ratio for death associated with 5-FU therapy was 0.66 (95% Cl, 0.60 to 0.73). Confounding could have accounted for this association only if an unmeasured confounder were extremely unequally distributed between the treated and untreated groups or increased mortality by at least 50%. Conclusions: 5-Fluorouracil adjuvant therapy is significantly associated with reduced mortality in older patients, similar to the association found in randomized, controlled trials among younger patients. More frequent use of 5-FU therapy in older patients would probably reduce death from colon cancer.
AB - Background: Randomized clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of adjuvant 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy after surgical resection of node-positive colon cancer. Although this treatment became the standard in 1990 following a National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference, among those at least 65 years of age it is less likely to be offered to older or nonwhite patients. Objective: To determine the association between 5-FU-based chemotherapy and survival in older patients. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Combined database of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program and Medicare. Patients: 4768 patients 65 years of age or older who received a diagnosis of node-positive colon cancer from 1992 to 1996, were covered by Medicare Parts A and B, and resided in the population covered by the SEER program. Measurements: Propensity scores to control for known predictors of receiving treatment, Cox proportional hazards models to assess the association of 5-FU therapy with survival, and sensitivity analyses to estimate the possible effects of unknown confounders. Results: Fifty-two percent of patients received 5-FU therapy. For this sample, the hazard ratio for death associated with 5-FU therapy was 0.66 (95% Cl, 0.60 to 0.73). Confounding could have accounted for this association only if an unmeasured confounder were extremely unequally distributed between the treated and untreated groups or increased mortality by at least 50%. Conclusions: 5-Fluorouracil adjuvant therapy is significantly associated with reduced mortality in older patients, similar to the association found in randomized, controlled trials among younger patients. More frequent use of 5-FU therapy in older patients would probably reduce death from colon cancer.
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U2 - 10.7326/0003-4819-136-5-200203050-00007
DO - 10.7326/0003-4819-136-5-200203050-00007
M3 - Article
C2 - 11874307
AN - SCOPUS:0037022820
SN - 0003-4819
VL - 136
SP - 349
EP - 357
JO - Annals of internal medicine
JF - Annals of internal medicine
IS - 5
ER -