Danish medical journal
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This thesis has reported survival among Danish colorectal cancer patients over the past decades and it has explored different aspects of the inferior short-term and long-term survival of Danish patients in relation to (i) patient factors: old age and comorbidity; (ii) disease factors: prognostic factors for early death after emergency surgery; (iii) diagnostic factors: impact of diagnostic delay; (iv) treatment factors: seasonal variation in postoperative mortality and the benefit of a new approach for management of obstructive cancer; and (v) structural factors: hospital volume and surgeon characteristics. Short-term survival. For colonic cancer, the 30-day relative survival rose from 86% in 1977-1982 to 90% in 1995-1999, and for rectal cancer it rose from 90% to 94% (I). ⋯ Emergency surgery for colonic cancer is associated with an inferior long-term survival. The 5-year survival after acute curative surgery in Denmark is 39% (16). However, the use of SEMS as bridge to elective curative surgery makes it possible to achieve 3-year survival rates similar to those of 75% seen after elective curative surgery for colonic cancer (IX) - despite an unexpectedly high perforation rate.