Colorectal cancer is an unusual disease in patients under 40 years of age, occurring with a frequency of 2.1 to 14.6%. In this retrospective study, we reviewed all patients with colorectal cancer under 40 years of age, submitted to surgery over a 5 year period. From all the 453 patients operated on with this disease at that period 48 (10.6%) were 40 years old or less. The average age was 32.5 years and the majority of patients were male (60.4%). The average time between the appearance of the symptoms and the diagnosis was 7 months. Family history was positive in eight (16.7%), negative in 28 (58.3%) and unknown in 12 (25%) patients. Rectal bleeding was the most important symptom and the rectum was the main location of the disease (62.5%). Thirty patients (62.5%) were submitted to curative surgery. The majority of patients (66.7%) presented the disease in advanced stages (III and IV). The average follow -up was 26.7 months with 12 deaths occurring in this period.
colorectal cancer; age; patients under 40 years; cancer; stage
