Colorectal Cancer Rates Dramatically Higher In The Elderly, USA

Main Category: Colorectal Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 20 Mar 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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Two-thirds of hospital stays for colorectal cancer involve Americans age 65 and older, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

AHRQ's analysis also shows when older patients with colorectal cancer are hospitalized not specifically for treating their cancer; admission is often for complications, such as intestinal blockage or pneumonia.

The colon and rectum make up the lower part of the part of the digestive system and remove water from digested food. Cancer of the colon and rectum are frequently reported together as colorectal cancer -- the third most common type of cancer in the United States for both men and women.

AHRQ's analysis of colon cancer hospitalizations, based on 2006 data, found that:

- Treatment of colon cancer as a primary reason for admission accounted for about 152,000 hospitalizations in one year. About 420,000 additional hospitalizations were for colon cancer complications, such as pneumonia.

- About 4.5 percent - 6,800 - of the patients who were admitted for colon cancer died while hospitalized. This rate is much higher than the 2.6 percent overall death rate for the approximately 30 million hospital stays for all conditions that year.

- While the admission rate for people hospitalized primarily for colon cancer declined 15 percent between 1995 and 2006, the hospitalization rate for patients who were admitted for other conditions but also had colon cancer increased 15 percent.

This AHRQ News and Numbers is based on data in Hospitalizations for Colorectal Cancer, 2006. The report uses statistics from the 2006 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital inpatient stays that is nationally representative of inpatient stays in all short-term, non-Federal hospitals. The data are drawn from hospitals that comprise 90 percent of all discharges in the United States and include all patients, regardless of insurance type, as well as the uninsured.

Source
AHRQ