Completion Rates of Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Colon Cancer: A Historical Perspective

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The impact of adjuvant therapy on cancer survival is one of our most important recent achievements in medical oncology. This milestone has been accomplished through the use of clinical trials especially among patients with breast and colon cancer. The annual odds of death from breast cancer alone among patients in these trials has decreased by up to 28%, depending on the criteria used for patient enrollment, the types of treatment given, and the characteristics of the tumors themselves ( 1 ) . Similar, but less well-defined, results have been reported for colon cancer ( 2 – 5 ) .

Randomized clinical trials provide us with the strongest evidence of efficacy for adjuvant cancer treatments. Observational studies such as that of Dobie et al. ( 6 ) in this issue of the Journal provide information on the long-term effectiveness of adjuvant treatments among a population-based sample.They indicate which factors predict the receipt of appropriate treatment, long-term overall and cancer-specific survival, and the adverse events that may accompany such therapy.