Safety and efficacy of colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection in elders: clinical and follow-up outcomes

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has recently been applied to treatment of colorectal neoplasia; however, its safety and efficacy in terms of follow-up outcomes in elders have not been thoroughly examined. The aim of this study is to describe the clinical outcomes of colorectal ESD in elderly patients. Two groups of patients, elderly (a parts per thousand yen75 years of age) and non-elderly (< 75 years of age), who underwent colorectal ESD at the National Cancer Center Hospital from February 1998 to December 2010 were retrospectively compared on the following measures: tumor size, procedure time, complication rates, en bloc resection rates, and curative resection rates. We also investigated the follow-up outcomes in non-curative resection cases. Of 614 consecutive patients treated by colorectal ESD, 125 (20.4 %) comprised the elderly group, and 489 patients (79.6 %) comprised the non-elderly group. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of tumor size, procedure time, complication rates, en bloc resection rates, and curative resection rates. Of the patients who underwent non-curative resection, 7/19 (36.8 %) and 47/63 (74.6 %) in the elderly and non-elderly group, respectively, underwent additional treatment. Among the elderly patients who were followed up without additional treatment, no case of local recurrence, residual lesions, or distant metastases was observed during the observation period. Treatment outcomes of colorectal ESD were equivalent in both groups. However, many of the non-curative cases in the elderly patients were followed up without additional treatment. Future studies should focus on the outcome in such patients to confirm the feasibility of colorectal ESD in elderly patients.