Do Patients with Second Primary Colorectal Cancer Hold the Similar Prognosis and Therapeutic Benefits as Those with Initial Primary Colorectal Cancer?

Second primary colorectal cancer in adults: a SEER analysis of incidence and outcomes

BACKGROUND

At present, there was no large epidemiological study exploring the actual incidence and survival of second primary colorectal cancer (spCRC). The different characteristics and survival of patients with spCRC and initial primary colorectal cancer (ipCRC) still need to be elucidated. In addition, the factors leading to different survival status of spCRC and ipCRC were still unclear. Our study plan to explore the annual incidence trend of spCRC as well as the factors influencing the occurrence and survival outcome of spCRC.

METHODS

This cohort study analyzed the data of 4680 spCRC patients and 330,937 initial primary colorectal cancer (ipCRC) patients. Whether patients had spCRC and whether spCRC patients survived or died were regarded as outcomes. The annual incidence of spCRC from 2004 to 2016 was analyzed by Jointpoint regression analysis. The truncation points were found, and the annual percentage change (APC) of each segment was calculated to explore the trend of spCRC change in the United States. Univariate and multivariable cox regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with the occurrence and prognosis of spCRC patients.

RESULTS

The total incidence of spCRC was decreased during 2000-2016 on the whole. The overall incidence of spCRC was lowered in both males and females despite 2013-2014, in the left colon, right colon, rectum and others. The incidence of spCRC was decreased in both 18-49 years' people and ≥ 50 years' people during 2000-2016, and the incidence of spCRC in the ≥ 50 years' people group was higher than those of 18-49 years. Insured (OR = 0.867 (0.778-0.966), initial primary site of other digestive (OR = 0.46, 95%CI: 0.42-0.50), rectum (OR = 0.74, 95%CI: 0.66-0.82), or right colon (OR = 0.73, 95%CI: 0.68-0.79), N 1 stage (OR = 0.87, 95%CI: 0.76-0.99), M 1 stage (OR = 0.49, 95%CI: 0.30-0.80), AJCC II stage (OR = 0.70, 95%CI: 0.60-0.82), AJCC III stage (OR = 0.69, 95%CI: 0.56-0.84), and radiation (OR = 0.69, 95%CI: 0.57-0.83) were associated with the risk of spCRC. At the end of follow-up, 2,246 spCRC patients were survived and 2,434 spCRC patients were dead. Patients with spCRC had poor survival probability than patients with ipCRC. Older age (HR = 1.02, 95%CI: 1.02-1.03), male (HR = 1.13, 95%CI: 1.04-1.23), Black (HR = 1.20, 95%CI: 1.06-1.35), uninsured (HR = 1.36, 95%CI: 1.16-1.59), Signet ring cell carcinoma (HR = 1.64, 95%CI: 1.19-2.25), T4 stage (HR = 1.63, 95%CI: 1.32-2.01), N2 stage (HR = 1.36, 95%CI: 1.08-1.72), M1 stage (HR = 4.51, 95%CI: 2.00-10.18), AJCC III (HR = 1.47, 95%CI: 1.08-1.98), and radiation (HR = 1.82, 95%CI: 1.43-2.33) were associated with increased risk of mortality in spCRC patients.

CONCLUSION

The incidence of spCRC was decreased except in people with initial primary tumor grade IV and those aged 15-39 years. The overall survival of spCRC patients was lower than ipCRC patients. Cancer patients with older age, high tumor grade, TNM stage, and AJCC stage should be caution to the occurrence of spCRC and timely interventions should be provided for spCRC patients to improve their outcomes.

Colorectal cancer risk in association with colorectal cancer as a second malignancy in relatives: a nationwide cohort study

Background

Increasing number of individuals will have first-degree relatives (FDRs) diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC), as a second primary malignancy (CRCa-2) after a non-CRC cancer. We aimed to estimate whether and to what extent a family history of CRCa-2 is associated with an increased CRC risk.

Methods

In this Swedish nationwide cohort study, rate ratio (RR) and cumulative incidence of CRC were estimated among 172,531 individuals with a family history of CRC as a first primary malignancy (CRCa-1) and 17,830 with a family history of CRCa-2, respectively, using individuals without cancer family history as the reference group.

Results

A cumulative incidence of CRC by age 80 was 6.3 and 5.6% for individuals with a parental and a sibling family history of CRCa-2, respectively. RRs of CRC for one FDR diagnosed with CRCa-1 and CRCa-2 were respectively 1.72 (95% CI, 1.65–1.79) and 1.50 (1.32–1.70); the latter RR was lower than the former (P = 0.0356), but no difference was observed after adjusting age of diagnosis of CRC in FDR and family relationship (P = 0.6898). Increased RRs were found to be associated with a CRCa-2 diagnosis in FDR that occured after cancers in upper aerodigestive tract, breast, prostate, kidney and nervous system.

Conclusions

Individuals who have relatives with CRCa-2 have an increased risk of CRC, but the magnitude is lower than those having relatives with CRCa-1, which is related to different ages of diagnosis of CRC in FDR and family relationships.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-10000-z.

Risk of colon cancer-related death in people who had cancer in the past

BACKGROUND

The rate of second primary malignancies (SPM) is gradually increasing. Yet, the risk of death from primary cancer vs. SPM is still not well understood. In this study, we investigated the survival of patients with colorectal cancer (as SPM) who had cancer in the past (prior cancer) and the risk factors of SPM death in this population.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, we identified 1866 colon cancer patients with prior cancer in our main cohort and 43,959 colon cancer patients, including 37,440 patients with colon cancer as only malignancy and 6519 patients with colon cancer as subsequent colon cancer (SCC), in a second cohort and 3429 colon cancer patients, including 2371 patients with prior colon cancer (PCC) and 1058 patients with colon cancer as SPM, in a third cohort. After propensity score matching, 6519 pairs of subjects were identified in second cohort.

RESULTS

Patients with prior prostate and breast cancer had a higher risk of developing colon cancer compared to those with gastrointestinal cancer. Also, colon cancer patients with different prior cancer had different survival rates. Furthermore, except for prior lung cancer (52.78 vs. 25.93%), most subjects died due to colon cancer complications. The ratio of colon cancer deaths to prior cancer deaths in patients with a low stage and high stage was 1.51 and 6.64, respectively. In addition, colon cancer-specific survival (CSS) and OS rates were significantly lower in subjects with colon cancer as the SPM than in those with PCC. Also, compared with PCC, SPM was associated with OS and CSS with HR 1.59 (95 CI 1.43-1.78) and HR 2.00 (95% CI 1.70-2.36). Furthermore, compared with only colon cancer, SCC was associated with OS and CSS with HR 1.23 (95 CI 1.17-1.29) and HR 1.13 (95% CI 1.06-1.21).

CONCLUSIONS

Prior cancer was found to have an adverse impact on OS in patients with colon cancer (secondary cancer), most of whom died due to colon cancer as secondary cancer itself rather than prior cancer. Early detection and treatment strategies should be investigated in this population.

Risk Factors on the Incidence and Prognostic Effects of Colorectal Cancer With Brain Metastasis: A SEER-Based Study

Background

Colorectal cancer (CRC) with brain metastases (BM) is uncommon and often diagnosed at a late stage. The aims of this study were to identify the clinical factors that can influence the incidence of CRC patients with BM (CRCBM) and to investigate the impact of clinical factors and therapies on the outcomes of CRCBM.

Methods

Between 2010 and 2018, patients with CRCBM were enrolled under the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. Multivariable logistic and Cox regression models were used to identify risk factors and prognostic factors of BM. Kaplan–Meier curve and log-rank test were used to evaluate overall survival (OS) and tumor-specific survival (CSS) of CRCBM patients.

Results

A total of 195 (0.34%) CRC patients initially diagnosed with BM were included for analysis. The positive level of CEA, pN2a-b, and additional organ metastases were positively associated with developing BM from the CRC cohort (p < 0.05). The median OS and CSS of the BM patients were both 4.0 months, while the corresponding survival time in CRC patients without BM was 14.0 and 16.0 months, respectively (HR = 2.621, 95% CI = 2.061–3.333 for CSS; HR = 2.556, 95% CI = 2.026–3.225 for OS; log rank p < 0.001, each). Only systematic treatment was independently associated with better survival (p < 0.05, each).

Conclusions

Although the overall prognosis of CRCBM patients was extremely poor, the positive level of CEA, pN2a-b, and distant metastases could be bad risk factors for the incidence of CRCBM. In addition, only systematic treatment was found to be a negative prognostic factor for CRCBM patients. These related factors can provide more valuable reference for clinical individualized treatments.

Second primary malignancies in colorectal cancer patients

The prevalence of second primary malignancies (SPMs) in the western world is continually increasing with the risk of a new primary cancer in patients with previously diagnosed carcinoma at about 20%. The aim of this retrospective analysis is to identify SPMs in colorectal cancer patients in a single-institution cohort, describe the most frequent SPMs in colorectal cancer patients, and discover the time period to occurrence of second primary tumors. We identified 1174 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the period 2003–2013, with follow-up till 31.12.2018, and median follow-up of 10.1 years, (median age 63 years, 724 men). A second primary neoplasm was diagnosed in 234 patients (19.9%). Older age patients, those with early-stage disease and those with no relapse have a higher risk of secondary cancer development. The median time from cancer diagnosis to development of CRC was 8.9 years for breast cancer and 3.4 years for prostate cancer. For the most common cancer diagnosis after primary CRC, the median time to development was 0–5.2 years, depending on the type of malignancy. Patients with a diagnosis of breast, prostate, or kidney cancer, or melanoma should be regularly screened for CRC. CRC patients should also be screened for additional CRC as well as cancers of the breast, prostate, kidney, and bladder. The screening of cancer patients for the most frequent malignancies along with systematic patient education in this field should be the standard of surveillance for colorectal cancer patients.

Prognosis and treatment differences between initial and second primary chondrosarcoma

Prognosis and treatment differences between initial and second primary chondrosarcoma (pCS) remain unknown. In the present study, patients with chondrosarcoma diagnosed between January 2004 and December 2015 were identified using the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to assess overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were used to determine factors associated with all-cause mortality and cancer-specific mortality. In total, 1,655 eligible patients were included in the cohort of the present study, of which, 1,455 (87.9%) had initial pCS and 200 (12.1%) had second pCS. Patients with second pCS were more frequently diagnosed in the age range of 61-80 years compared with patients with initial pCS (52.5 vs. 43.1%; P<0.001). The OS rate of patients with initial pCS was significantly higher than that of patients with second pCS (78.3 vs. 63.0%; P<0.001). Multivariable logistic regression analyses suggested that second pCS predicted higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 1.72; 95% confidence interval, 1.31-2.26, P<0.001) compared with that in patients with initial pCS. Furthermore, there were no differences observed in the treatment benefits between the patients with initial and second pCS. In conclusion, second pCS was more frequently diagnosed in older patients compared with initial pCS. In addition, the prognosis of patients with second pCS was worse than that of patients with initial pCS, and the treatment is essentially the same for initial and second pCS.

miR-330 suppresses EMT and induces apoptosis by downregulating HMGA2 in human colorectal cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important molecular regulatorsof cellular signaling and behavior. They alter gene expression by targeting messenger RNAs, including those encoding transcriptional regulators, such as HMGA2. While HMGA2 is oncogenic in various tumors, miRNAs may be oncogenic or tumor suppressive. Here, we investigate the expression of HMGA2 and the miRNA miR-330 in a patient with colorectal cancer (CRC) samples and their effects on oncogenic cellular phenotypes. We found that HMGA2 expression is increased and miR-330 expression is decreased in CRCs and each predicts poor long-term patient survival. Stably increased miR-330 expression in human colorectal cancer cells (HCT116) and SW480 CRC cell lines downregulate the oncogenic expression of HMGA2, a predicted miR-330 target. Additionally, this promotes apoptosis and decreases cell migration and viability. Consistently, it also decreases protein-level expression of markers for epithelial-to-mesenchymal-transition (Snail-1, E-cadherin, and Vascular endothelial growth factor receptors) and transforming growth factor β signaling (SMAD3), as well as phospho- Protein kinase B (AKT) and phospho-STAT3 levels. We conclude that miR-330 acts as a tumor suppressor miRNA in CRC by suppressing HMGA2 expression and reducing cell survival, proliferation, and migration. Thus, we identify miR-330 as a promising candidate for miRNA replacement therapy for patients with CRC.