Methods: Using the key words "surgery stage IV breast cancer", a PubMed search for all related articles published in the English language, between January 1999 to December 2009, was done. Of 292 articles yielded by the search, 25 articles focused on the impact of surgery in stage IV breast cancer. Full texts of these of these articles were then collated for this review. Results: No randomized controlled trials comparing the outcome of surgery versus no surgery in metastatic breast cancer have been published thus far. The search yielded only heterogenous data from several retrospective studies for which no systematic reviews or meta-analysis had been done. A summary of these retrospective data was done and reported herein. The reports are grouped into two: those based on population registries, and those coming from single institutions.
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Rationale/Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) in younger patients is usually considered as having a poorer prognosis compared to the population. Other authors report conflicting results, stating similar or no difference in prognosis. Clearly, age as a prognostic factor in CRC is not yet settled.

Objectives: To determine the relative frequency of CRC in patients 39 years old and below in five major hospitals in Cebu City, and to compare their respective Clinicopathologic features with patients aged 40 years and above.

Study Design: Cross-sectional comparative study.

Method: A chart review of colorectal cancer patients from five tertiary hospitals in Cebu City from January 1999 to December 2003 was the basis of the study. The patients were divided into two age groups (39 years old and below, 40 years old and above). The two groups were compared as to age, gender, family history, duration of disease, site distribution of lesions, tumor grade and histologic subtype.

Results: A total of 408 patients were included in the study. Sixty-one patients were below 40 years old for a frequency of 15 percent. A statistically significant number of CRC patients younger than 40 years old had right-sided lesions and poorly differentiated histopathology.

Conclusion: In this study population, a significant number of colorectal cancers in patients younger than 40 years old have Clinicopathologic features that are different from those in older patients, i.e., they tend to be located at the right side of the colon and have a poorly differentiated histopathology. (Author)

Colorectal Neoplasms ; ; Colon ; ; Multicenter Studies