[Comparative clinico-evolutive and therapeutic aspects in cancer of the right and left colon].

The paper reports on the casuistics of the colon cancer in the Clinic of Surgery of the "Griviţa" Clinical Hospital, for 21 years (1966-1986) with emphasis on the situs peculiarities on the right and left colon. Whereas the left colon cancer (LCC) started in 32% of cases with subocclusive and occlusive syndromes having special implications on the treatment and prognosis, in the right colon cancer (RCC) only in 3.5% of cases the diagnosis was established in the stage of subocclusive syndrome. During surgery the metastatic adenopathy was met in 57% in LCC and only in 37% in RCC, and the hepatic metastases in 17.7% in LCC and in 10.9% in the RCC cases. The immediate postsurgery mortality was present in 12% of the LCC cases and in only 9.3% of the RCC cases. In the last 10 years of the period studied, the patients were periodically readmitted into the hospital, reinvestigated, and monochemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil was applied in sequential cures. In this last period, the survival at 5 years was of 25 (45.4%) in the 55 patients operated for RCC and of 41 (37.6%) in the 109 patients operated for LCC.