Lifestyle and family history influence cancer prognosis in Brazilian individuals

• Autor(a) principal: Araújo, Aurigena Antunes de
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Araújo Jr, Raimundo F., Lira, George A., Guedes, Hugo G., Cardoso, Marília A., Cavalcante, Francisco J., Araújo, Ana Lucia M., Ramos, Carlos César O.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRN
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/25414; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prp.2013.08.007
• topic: Colorectal cancer; Brazil; Survival; Neoplasm by site; Public health

The aim of this research was to study prognostic parameters of CRC by analyzing clinical and pathological variables associated with cancer patients at a northeastern Brazilian Hospital. This was a retrospective study evaluating CRC-diagnosed patients across a 10-year period (1995–2005) at Dr. Luiz Antônio Hospital in Natal, RN, Brazil. Data were collected from patients’ medical files. A total of 358 patients were included over the 10-year period. The average age at diagnosis was 58.8 years (S.D. = 15.26), 48.3% of the patients were males and 51.7% were females. Alcohol consumption significantly increased the chance of dying (p < 0.023) from colorectal cancer; this increased risk of death was approximately 71%, compared to 52.2% of the non-alcoholics. In addition, tobacco increased the chance of developing high TNM stage tumors (level III, IV; p < 0.001). Another risk factor for increased mortality was a family history for colorectal cancer (p < 0.002). Our analysis found that patients with an unhealthy lifestyle and/or family history of colorectal cancer were more likely to develop advanced stage colorectal cancer and to have a poor disease prognosis compared to patients with healthy lifestyle and/or sporadic colorectal cancer. These data suggest that a mass screening program should be implemented in northeastern Brazil in order to better prevent and treat colorectal cancer.