Objective: To establish the classification of colorectal cancer recurrence patterns based on their relations to prognosis and recurrence.
Methods: A total of 463 patients with recurrent rectal cancer (Stage I-III) following curative resection in our hospital from June 2002 to June 2012 were included consecutively. Recurrence status, time, location, survival time after relapse, curability, symptoms and CEA level were recorded. The correlation between each recurrent pattern and recurrent survival (RS) rate were analyzed retrospectively. The survival curve was drawn by Kaplan-Meier method. The Log-rank test was used to test the significance. Univariate analysis was performed by using Cox proportional hazard model.
Results: Patients with recurrence within one year, multiple metastases, symptomatic disease, elevated CEA level and unresectable recurrence had significantly lower RS rate than patients with recurrence after one year, solitary metastasis, asymptomatic manifestation, normal CEA level and resectable recurrence respectively. The hazard ratio were 1.34 (95%CI 1.02-1.76, P= 0.033), 1.41 (95%CI 1.04-1.91, P= 0.026), 1.74 (95%CI 1.05-2.88, P= 0.032), 4.06 (95%CI 2.11-7.85, P<0.001) and 1.99 (95%CI 1.34-2.97, P= 0.001) respectively.
Conclusion: Early recurrence (<12 months), multiple metastases, symptomatic, unresectable recurrence and elevated CEA indicate poor prognosis after relapse. This study provides a systematic basis for the classification of recurrence in colorectal cancer after radical resection.