Failure patterns following curative resection of colonic carcinoma.

To identify patterns of failure following curative resection of colonic (nonrectal) carcinoma, the medical records of 533 patients undergoing resection with curative intent were reviewed. The overall local failure rate was 19% (102/533 patients) with 32 patients having local failure alone and 70 patients having concurrent local failure and distant metastases. The incidence of local failure rose with advancing stage of disease. Tumors staged B3, C2, and C3 had local failure rates in excess of 30%. Local failures occurred predominantly in tumor bed and adjoining structures (82%) and not by regional nodal failure (18%). One hundred thirty-one patients (25%) developed distant metastases. One hundred ten patients (84%) failed in the abdomen-liver, peritoneal seeding, para-aortic, or portahepatic lymph nodes. Patients with Stage B3, C2, and C3 tumors were found to have abdominal failure rates (excluding local failure) of greater than 20%. The highest failure rates in the liver were in Stage C2 and C3 patients in which the subsequent development of liver metastases was 29% and 31%, respectively. In Stage C3, peritoneal seeding and abdominal lymph node failure occurred in 18% and 14% of the patients, respectively.