Rectal cancer in young patients: Clinicoepidemiologic profile and treatment outcomes.
4042 Background: Colorectal cancers are 3rd most common cause of cancer globally however studies of rectal cancers alone in younger patients are scarce. Rectal cancers in Asian patients present at a younger age and has an aggressive tumor biology. This study looks at rectal cancer in young patients, ≤30 years old, with the aim to report clinico-epidemiologic profile and treatment outcomes in this subgroup. Methods: Retrospective analysis was conducted at a tertiary care centre. Of total 845 rectal cancer patients between 2012-2017, 103 patients of young rectal cancers were enrolled. Kaplan Meier method was used for survival analysis and cox regression analysis was done to identify factors affecting survival. Results: Young rectal cancer patients constituted 12.2% of the total rectal cancer patients. Male: Female ratio was 2.3:1 and the mean age was 24.7 ± 3.9 years. Around 73.8 % patients had locoregional disease (stage I/II/III) at presentation.CEA levels were elevated in 36.9% of patients, while most common histology was signet ring cell histology which was present in 51.5% of patients. Of 76 patients with locoregional disease, 75% received neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, 7.9% received neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone while 3.9% received neoadjuvant radiotherapy alone. Of 76 patients with locoregional disease, 55 patients underwent surgery of which 53.9% underwent low anterior resection while 18.4% underwent abdomino-perineal resection. Pathologic CR rates were seen in 13.3%, while recurrences were seen in 55.4% of non-metastatic patients. Overall 5-year survival for the whole study group was 19.5%, while 1-year PFS and 3-year DFS for metastatic and non-metastatic disease were 5% and 43.8% respectively. On regression analysis elevated CEA levels and not achieving a pathologic CR (pCR) with neoadjuvant therapy had a trend towards worse overall survival (HR 2, 95% CI 1-4, p = 0.063), (HR 4.7, 95% CI 0.64-35.1, p = 0.125) respectively. Conclusions: Rectal cancers in Asia present at younger age and this younger population is associated with advanced stage, increased CEA at presentation, aggressive histology and poor survival. CEA raise and not achieving pCR were associated with trend towards worse survival.