## 3 Results
### General Data of the Patients Included in the Study Groups
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Parameter** & **Non-Pandemic Group** & **Pandemic Group** & **\(p\) Value** \\  & **(March 2019-February 2020)** & **(March 2020-February 2021)** & \(p\) Value** \\ \hline Emergency presentation (cases; \%) & 44 (37.3\%) & 25 (69\%) & 0.009 \({}^{(a)}\) \\  • Occlusion & 33 (27.9\%) & 23 (63.8\%) & 0.008 \({}^{(a)}\) \\  • Perforation & 2 (1.6\%) & 1 (2.7\%) & 0.367 \({}^{(a)}\) \\  • Inferior digestive hemorrhage & 9 (5\%) & 1 (2.7\%) & 0.685 \({}^{(a)}\) \\ \hline Location of the tumor (no. of cases; \%): & & & \\ • • Cecum and right colon & 30 (25.4\%) & 10 (27.7\%) & 0.829 \({}^{(a)}\) \\ • Transverse colon & 4 (3.3\%) & 4 (11.1\%) & 0.087 \({}^{(a)}\) \\ • Left colon & 51 (43.2\%) & 17 (47.2\%) & 0.704 \({}^{(a)}\) \\ • Rectum/rectosigmoid & 33 (27.9\%) & 5 (13.8\%) & 0.121 \({}^{(a)}\) \\ \hline Chemotherapy before admission (no. of cases; \%): & 16 (15.6\%) & 2 (5.5\%) & 0.354 \({}^{(a)}\) \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Comorbidities (no. of cases; \%):} & & \\ • Arterial hypertension & 40 (33.9\%) & 16 (44.4\%) & 0.322 \\ • Ischemic coronary disease & 30 (25.4\%) & 20 (55.6\%) & 0.001 \\ • Chronic respiratory diseases & 18 (15.3\%) & 0 (0.0\%) & 0.008 \\ • Diabetes mellitus & 10 (8.6\%) & 4 (11.1\%) & 0.741 \\ • Other & 30 (25.4\%) & 10 (27.8\%) & 0.828 \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{No. of comorbidities per patient:} & & 0.273 \\ • • & \(\geq\)3 & 14 (11.8\%) & 6 (16.6\%) & \\ • • & 2 & 49 (41.5\%) & 9 (25\%) & \\ • • & 1 & 39 (33\%) & 13 (36.1\%) & \\ • • & 0 & 16 (13.5\%) & 8 (22.2\%) & \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{TNM Stage (no. of cases; \%)} & & \\ T & & & \\ & T2 & 12 (10.1\%) & 0 & \\ & T3 & 67 (56.7\%) & 12 (33.3\%) & 0.163 \\ & T4 & 24 (20.3\%) & 21 (58.3\%) & \\ & Tx & 9 (7.6\%) & 3 (8.3\%) & \\ N & & 32 (27.1\%) & 8 (22.2\%) & \\ & N1 & 72 (61\%) & 18 (50\%) & 0.373 \\ & N2 & 6 (5.1\%) & 6 (16.6\%) & \\ & Nx & 8 (6.8\%) & 4 (11.1\%) & \\ M & & 27 (22.8\%) & 6 (16.6\%) & 0.623 \\ & Mx & 91 (77.2\%) & 30 (83.4\%) & \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Histopathological forms (cases; \%)} & & \\ • Colonic conventional adenocarcinoma & 80 (67.68\%) & 8 (22.1\%) & \textless{}0.001 \\ • • & Colonic mucinous adenocarcinoma & 21 (17.8\%) & 26 (72.2\%) & \textless{}0.001 \\ • • & Rectal adenocarcinoma NOS & 11 (9.3\%) & 0 & 0.196 \\ • & Rectal squamous cell carcinoma & 2 (1.6\%) & 0 & 0.586 \\ • & Neuroendocrine tumor & 2 (1.6\%) & 2 (5.5\%) & 0.193 \\ • & Colonic stromal tumor & 2 (1.6\%) & 0 & 0.586 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: _Cont._distribution of cases according to TNM stage revealed a higher incidence of loco-regional advanced colorectal tumors in the pandemic groups (T4 58.3% vs. 20.3%; N2 16.6% vs. 5.1%), but not statistically significant (_p_-value = 0.163). An interesting finding in the histopathological exam was a significantly higher proportion of mucinous adenocarcinomas moderately differentiated (G2) in the pandemic group (72.2% vs. 17.6%. \(p\) = 0.002), while in the non-pandemic group, the most prevalent were conventional G2 colonic adenocarcinomas (59.3%). This type of colorectal tumor is generally associated with a delayed diagnosis until advanced stage, partial response to chemotherapy and worse outcomes compared with conventional colorectal adenocarcinoma [21; 22].