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Evidence summaries

Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Colorectal Cancer

Adjuvant chemotherapy increases disease-free survival although no overall survival in patients with stage II colon cancer. Level of evidence: "A"

A Cochrane review 1 [Abstract] included 33 randomized trials and 17 meta-analyses containing data on stage II colon cancer patients undergoing adjuvant therapy versus surgery alone. The participants in the trials were patients with completely resected colon (n=7 731) or rectal (n=7 600) cancers. With regards to the effect of adjuvant therapy on stage II colon cancer, the pooled relative risk ratio for overall survival was 0.96 (95% CL 0.88 to 1.05). With regards to disease-free survival, the pooled relative risk ratio was 0.83 (95% Cl 0.75 to 0.92).

    References

    • Figueredo A, Coombes ME, Mukherjee S. Adjuvant therapy for completely resected stage II colon cancer. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2008;(3):CD005390. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords