Colorectal Cancer Question

I have read that the survival rate of stage one or Dukes A are that you will live for 5 years, what does that mean? IF you get the surgery that you only have five years to live or that you will only live five years if you don't get the surgery?  If you get the surgery and the cancer does not come back you will live longer than five years right?

I am very confused about these survival rates...

Thanks for your help

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  I think what you're referring to is the statistic called "five-year survival rate".  Oncologists, instead of mentioning "cure rates" for specific stages of cancer, often refer to three, five, or ten year survival rates to measure prognosis.  These statistics mean the proportion patients in a particular stage of cancer who are still alive after a certain period of time, say 3, 5, or 10 years.  As an example, Stage 1 colorectal cancer has a 5-year survival rate of around 80%.  This means that 8 out of 10 people with this stage of the disease are expected to be alive at 5 years from the time of diagnosis.  Certainly, a majority of that 8 will continue to survive beyond 5 years. However, because the observation period of most of the clinical studies done with this type of patients runs only for about 5 years, the evidence (and the statistics) can only be calculated within this time frame.  If the studies are run much longer (for example, in breast cancer), then survival estimates for a longer period of time can be calculated.

So it doesn't mean that a stage 1 colorectal cancer patient has 5 years to live.  It means that he has an excellent chance (80% or even greater) of being alive five years after the initial diagnosis.