Table 1.

Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients (n = 1212) in UMMC

Characteristics		n	%
Sex	Male	668	55.1
	Female	544	44.9
Ethnic groups	Chinese	808	66.7
	Malays	225	18.6
	Indians	157	13.0
	Others	22	1.7
Age groups (years)	≤ 39	83	6.8
	40–49	121	10.0
	50–59	291	24.0
	60–69	410	34.0
	≥ 70	307	25.3
Co-morbidities	Hypertension	318	26.2
	Diabetes	196	16.2
Site	Colon	596	49.2
	Rectum	552	45.5
	Unknown	64	5.3
Pre-operative carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) level	Not elevated (≤ 5.0 ng/ml)	543	44.8
	Elevated (> 5.0 ng/ml)	256	21.1
	Unknown	413	34.1
Tumour Grades	Low	802	66.2
	High	60	5.0
	Unknown	350	28.8
Duke’s Stages	A&B	297	24.5
	C	366	30.2
	D	151	12.5
	Unknown	398	32.8
Treatment modalities	Surgery alone	488	40.3
	Surgery plus Chemo- or Radiotherapy	393	32.4
	Surgery plus Chemo- and Radiotherapy	116	9.6
	Chemo- and Radiotherapy alone	101	8.3
	Best supportive care	114	9.4
Urgency of surgerya	Elective	481	48.2
(n = 997)	Emergency	134	13.4
	Unknown	382	38.2

^a n = 215 patients on chemo- and radiotherapy alone or on best supportive care