Colon cancer in family increases survival

BOSTON, June 4 (UPI) -- Patients being treated for advanced colon cancer who have a family history of colon cancer may live longer than those with no family link, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Jennifer A. Chan of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and colleagues examined the association of family history of colorectal cancer with recurrence and survival of 1,087 patients with stage III colon cancer who were receiving supplemental chemotherapy.

Patients provided information on family history of colorectal cancer at the beginning of the study, and were followed up until March 2007 for cancer recurrence and death with a median midpoint follow-up of 5.6 years.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that among the 1,087 participants, 195, or 17.9 percent, reported a family history of colorectal cancer in one or more first-degree relatives -- a sibling or parent.

Examining just the risk for cancer recurrence, patients with a family history of colorectal cancer had a 26 percent reduced risk compared with patients without a family history. Cancer recurrence occurred in 27 percent of patients with a family history of colorectal cancer and 35 percent of patients without a family history.