Table 2.

General characteristics including proportion of patients receiving chemotherapy (CT)

	1992–1999		2000–2004		2005–2008
	n	CT (%)	n	CT (%)	n	CT (%)
Overall	415	27	456	47	448	58**b
Age
<70	243	37	283	61	251	76
70+	172	12**	173	24**	197	36**
Gender
Male	261	29	281	47	281	62
Female	154	24	175	46	167	52*
Socio-economic status
Low	92	21	125	39	126	56
Intermediate	169	31	190	50	1778	58
High	116	30	115	56	123	64
Institutionalised	22	9	17	18**	11	0**
Unknown	16	25	9	22	11	73
Comorbiditya
None	174	34	168	54	150	69
One comorbid condition	116	25	135	47	127	58
Two or more comorbid conditions	62	19	98	34**	135	47**
Unknown	63	19	55	49	36	53
Site of metastasis
Liver only	255	29	261	50	237	58
Other	160	24	195	43	211	58

^aRegistered since 1993; patients diagnosed in 1992 designated to ‘unknown comorbidity’

^bχ² test of difference in chemotherapy use between periods of diagnosis

* P-value > 0.05 (χ² test of difference in chemotherapy use between values of one variable within the same period of diagnosis, excluding unknown category)

** P-value > 0.01 (χ² test of difference in chemotherapy use between values of one variable within the same period of diagnosis, excluding unknown category)