Table 1.
Clinicopathologic characteristics of patients with early-onset and late-onset colorectal cancer
| Overall (N = 4572) | EOCRC, < 50 years (N = 991) | LOCRC, ≥ 50 years (N = 3581) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age at diagnosis, years | 58.64 (11.71) | 42.24 (6.85) | 63.18 (8.20) | < 0.001 |
| Sex | 0.001 | |||
| Male | 2720 (59.5) | 544 (54.9) | 2176 (60.8) | |
| Female | 1852 (40.5) | 447 (45.1) | 1405 (39.2) | |
| Marital status | 0.001 | |||
| Married | 4318 (94.1) | 911 (91.9) | 3390 (94.7) | |
| Not married/divorced/widowed | 270 (5.9) | 80 (8.1) | 190 (5.3) | |
| Education level | < 0.001 | |||
| Primary school or below | 1325 (29.0) | 161 (16.2) | 1164 (32.5) | |
| Middle school | 1475 (32.3) | 343 (34.6) | 1132 (31.6) | |
| High school/specialized secondary schools | 1037 (22.7) | 211 (21.3) | 826 (23.1) | |
| University/specialty or above | 732 (16.0) | 276 (27.9) | 456 (12.7) | |
| Region | < 0.001 | |||
| Eastern | 1312 (28.7) | 233 (23.5) | 1079 (30.1) | |
| Northern | 563 (12.3) | 112 (11.3) | 451 (12.6) | |
| Southern | 665 (14.5) | 197 (19.9) | 468 (13.1) | |
| Central | 689 (15.1) | 141 (14.2) | 548 (15.3) | |
| Northeast | 364 (8.0) | 60 (6.1) | 304 (8.5) | |
| Southwest | 652 (14.3) | 165 (16.6) | 487 (13.6) | |
| Northwest | 327 (7.2) | 83 (8.4) | 244 (6.8) | |
| Occupation | < 0.001 | |||
| Government and public sector personnel | 653 (14.3) | 271 (27.3) | 382 (10.7) | |
| Service workers, migrant workers, and individuals | 1726 (37.8) | 472 (47.6) | 1254 (35.0) | |
| Unemployment, layoffs, etc. | 1929 (42.2) | 181 (18.3) | 1748 (48.8) | |
| Unknow | 264 (5.8) | 67 (6.8) | 197 (5.5) | |
| Location of cancer | 0.107 | |||
| Colon | 2054 (45.5) | 83 (53.5) | 1587 (44.8) | |
| Rectum | 2463 (54.5) | 72 (46.5) | 1953 (55.2) | |
| Pathological TNM stage at first diagnosis | 0.032 | |||
| I | 110 (2.5) | 19 (2.0) | 91 (2.7) | |
| II | 772 (17.6) | 141 (14.7) | 631 (18.4) | |
| III | 1964 (44.7) | 446 (46.6) | 1518 (44.2) | |
| IV | 1545 (35.2) | 352 (36.7) | 1193 (34.8) | |
| Metastasis at first diagnosis | < 0.001 | |||
| No metastasis | 2842 (62.5) | 598 (60.9) | 2244 (63.0) | |
| With liver metastasis only | 639 (14.1) | 126 (12.8) | 513 (14.4) | |
| With lung metastasis only | 179 (3.9) | 34 (3.5) | 145 (4.1) | |
| With both liver and lung metastases | 191 (4.2) | 31 (3.2) | 160 (4.5) | |
| Widespread metastases throughout the body | 695 (15.3) | 193 (19.7) | 502 (14.1) | |
| Reason for the first hospital visit | 0.548 | |||
| Observation of suspected symptoms by patients themselves | 4003 (88.1) | 882 (89.2) | 3121 (87.7) | |
| Physical examination findings | 265 (5.8) | 51 (5.2) | 214 (6.0) | |
| Detection of CRC during screening or treatment of other diseases | 278 (6.1) | 56 (5.7) | 222 (6.2) | |
| Number of visited hospital | 1.94 (0.81) | 2.10 (0.83) | 1.89 (0.80) | < 0.001 |
Abbreviations EOCRC, Early-onset colorectal cancer; LOCRC, Late-onset colorectal cancer
Values are presented as mean (standard deviations) for continuous variables or n (%) for categorical variables