Table 1.

Demographic and Tumor Characteristics of Patients With Colon and Rectal Cancers Undergoing Resection at VA Hospitals (1998 to 2008)

Characteristic	Colon Cancer (n = 14,097)		Rectal Cancer (n = 3,390)
	No.	%	No.	%
Age, years
Median	66		66
IQR	59-74		59-74
Female sex	313	2.2	49	1.5
Race
White	10,746	76.2	2,738	80.8
Black	2,331	16.5	391	11.5
Hispanic	710	5.0	177	5.2
Other	310	2.2	84	2.5
Unmarried	6,721	47.7	1,683	49.7
Year of diagnosis
1998 to 2000	3,112	22.1	775	22.9
2001 to 2003	4,020	28.5	989	29.2
2004 to 2006	4,162	29.5	965	28.5
2007 to 2008	2,803	19.9	661	19.5
AJCC stage
I	4,394	31.2	1,030	30.4
II	5,138	36.5	1,149	33.9
III	4,565	32.4	1,211	35.7
Grade
Low	1,396	10.5	297	8.8
Intermediate	10,082	76.1	2,423	71.5
High	1,773	13.4	370	10.9
Tumor histology
Adenocarcinoma	12,843	91.1	3,155	93.1
Mucinous	1,148	8.1	202	6.0
Other	106	0.8	33	1.0
Location of diagnosis and treatment
Same hospital	12,782	90.7	2,850	84.1
Different hospitals	1,315	9.3	539	15.9
Surgical extent
Hemicolectomy	12,590	89.3	—	—
Total colectomy	508	3.6	—	—
Sigmoid colectomy	999	7.1	—	—
Proctectomy	—	—	2,492	73.5
Total proctocolectomy	—	—	124	3.7
APR	—	—	715	21.1
Pelvic exenteration	—	—	59	1.7
Hospital surgical volume, patient cases per year*
< 25	2,777	19.7	597	17.6
25 to 50	8,388	59.5	2,069	61.3
≥ 50	2,932	20.8	724	21.4

NOTE. Missing values for tumor grade: n = 1,190; 6.6%.

Abbreviations: AJCC, American Joint Committee on Cancer; APR, abdominoperineal resection; IQR, interquartile range; VA, Veterans Affairs.

^*Average annual hospital-level colorectal surgical case volume.