Variable Absolute survival Over all survival1 Site1 Colon Rectum Sex1 Male Female Age group <50 50-59 60-69 70-79 80+ Colon Rectum Sex1 Male Female Age group <50 50-59 60-69 70-79 80+ Relative survival Over all survival1 Site1 % 26.7 27.8 26.0 22.2 31.7 34.7 37.7 27.8 34.0 10.6 37.0 37.3 37.9 30.2 42.9 35.7 40.6 32.8 51.5 26.6 SE 2.2 2.8 3.6 2.6 3.5 4.1 4.5 4.0 5.0 4.9 4.2 4.9 7.4 5.0 6.2 4.3 4.9 4.8 7.6 12.3 % 50.3 50.2 49.9 47.9 52.6 66.2 65.3 59.2 50.0 29.8 62.4 62.6 61.0 61.0 63.7 67.2 68.0 65.5 63.2 55.0 SE 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.6 Diff 22.3 20.8 23.7 25.3 20.1 29.0 29.3 32.8 17.0 13.2 23.2 22.3 23.5 29.2 18.7 29.0 29.0 34.1 12.4 19.6 p-value <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 0.06 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001 <0.01 0.42 % 49.0 48.6 49.7 47.5 51.8 63.7 67.0 60.7 50.9 23.8 60.3 59.6 61.4 59.5 61.6 64.6 69.6 66.9 63.9 46.1 SE 1.3 1.7 2.2 1.7 2.2 3.8 3.1 2.7 2.7 2.7 1.9 2.4 3.3 2.5 3.0 3.8 3.2 3.0 3.4 5.2 1.3 1.6 0.2 0.4 0.9 2.5 -1.7 -1.5 -0.9 6.0 2.2 3.0 -0.4 1.5 2.1 2.6 -1.6 -1.4 -0.7 8.9 0.74 0.73 0.84 0.86 0.92 0.72 0.44 0.75 0.43 0.03 0.85 0.82 0.87 0.76 0.98 0.73 0.44 0.91 0.32 0.07 Redaniel et al. BMC Cancer 2010, 10:100 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/10/100 Page 5 of 9 Table 2 Five-year absolute and relative survival (in %) of colorectal cancer patients adjusted to the World Standard Cancer Patient Population, Philippine resident population, and Filipino-Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites from US SEER, 1998-2002 (1) Philippine resident population Between (1) and (2) (2) Filipino- Americans Between (2) and (3) Diff p-value (3) Non-Hispanic Whites Diff, difference; SE, standard error 1also adjusted by age Philippines than in the US cancer populations. No major differences were observed between Filipino-Americans and Caucasians. Within all three population groups, prognosis was very similar for colon and rectal cancer patients. Women have slightly higher survival than males in the SEER populations, but the sex difference is more pronounced among the Philippine residents. As shown in Table 3, advanced stage at diagnosis and not receiving surgery were strongly related to the risk of dying in each of the three populations. A histologic type other than adenocarcinoma was associated with better prognosis in the US cancer populations. A sub-analysis among the Philippine residents showed that not receiv- ing chemotherapy was also related to the risk of death (RR, 1.31; 95% CI 1.08-1.58). In bivariate comparative survival analysis between popu- lation groups (table 4), substantial excess risk of death was seen among CRC patients from the Philippines as com- pared to Filipino-American patients. Excess overall mor- tality was further increased when controlling for age, and was substantially reduced when controlling for receipt of surgery. Nevertheless, quite substantial excess overall mor- tality was found (RR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.83-2.25) after control- ling for these and other factors in multivariate analysis. The small excess risk of Caucasian CRC patients com- pared to Filipino-American CRC patients seen in bivariate analysis was mostly explained by the age differences, but a slight excess mortality for Caucasian patients remained after controlling for age and other covariates in multivari- ate analysis (RR, 1.12, 95% CI 1.04-1.20). Discussion This high-resolution study disclosed large survival defi- cits between Philippine resident CRC patients compared