The effect of comorbidity on the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and survival from colon cancer: a retrospective cohort study

Table 1 Characteristics of cohort participants

Patient factors		n	%
Sex	Male	305	51.8
	Female	284	48.2
Age	25–54 yrs	98	16.6
	55–64 yrs	154	26.2
	65–74 yrs	186	31.6
	75+ yrs	151	25.6
Ethnicity*	Maori	285	51.6
	Non-Maori	304	48.4
NZDep	1–2	59	10.0
	3–4	79	13.4
	5–6	111	18.9
	7–8	159	27.0
	9–10	181	30.7
Smoking	Non-smoker	234	39.7
	Ex-smoker	232	39.4
	Smoker	123	20.9
Disease factors		n	%
Stage	I	76	12.9
	II	183	31.1
	III	190	32.3
	IV	140	23.8
Grade	Well-differentiated	57	9.7
	Moderately	424	72.0
	Poorly	108	18.3
Site	Right	239	40.6
	Left	220	37.4
	Rectosigmoid	99	16.8
	Synchronous	31	5.3
Comorbidities		n	%
	Angina	72	12.2
	Hypertension	224	38.0
	Previous MI	49	8.3
	Cardiac arrhythmias	79	13.4
	CHF	62	10.5
	PVD	24	4.1
	Chronic respiratory disease	129	21.9
	GI ulcer disease	24	4.1
	Other cancer	27	4.6
	Cerebrovasc disease	41	7.0
	Diabetes (all)	95	16.1
	Renal disease (all)	31	5.3
	Other neurological	39	6.6
Charlson comorbidity index score	O	284	48.2
	1–2	240	40.8
	3+	65	11.0
Number of conditions**	0	181	30.7
	1	147	25.0
	2	117	19.9
	3+	144	24.5

*Maori purposively oversampled
**Included all conditions included in Charlson Comorbidity Index as well as angina, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, previous pulmonary embolism, cardiac valve disease, inflammatory bowel disease, other neurological conditions (including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy) and major psychiatric conditions (including schizophrenia, bipolar disease and depressive psychosis)

ISSN: 1471-2407