Patients with left-sided colorectal cancer survive longer, study reveals

Patients with metastatic colorectal cancer are more likely to survive if their tumor originates on the left-side of the colon versus the right, a study has revealed.

A retrospective analysis of a large, federally funded clinical trial (Phase III CALGB/SWOG), carried out by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that patients with left-sided tumors (in the descending colon, sigmoid colon and rectum) had a median overall survival of 33 months compared to 19 months in right-sided cancers (in the cecum and ascending colon).

The study also found that tumors should be treated differently depending on their location.