Endoscopic therapy versus surgical resection for elderly patients with colorectal neuroendocrine tumors

Endoscopic therapy (ET) and surgical resection (SR) are common surgical methods for the treatment of colorectal neuroendocrine tumors (CRNETs). However, for elderly patients, it remains unclear which surgical method yields better long-term outcomes.

Elderly patients ≥ 65 years with CRNETs diagnosed from 2000 to 2020 were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to minimize selection bias. The Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models were utilized to evaluate the effects of diverse demographic and clinical factors on overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS).

A total of 2214 patients were included in the study, with 1417 patients in the ET group and 797 patients in the SR group. After PSM, the ET group outperformed the SR group in terms of OS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.44–0.70) and CSS (HR 0.21, 95% CI 0.11–0.40). Similarly, the ET group maintained its advantage in mean 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS and CSS rates compared to the SR group (P < 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified age, sex, grade, marital status, and treatment modality as independent risk factors affecting OS, while age, sex, marital status, and treatment modality were identified as independent risk factors affecting CSS.

ET offered superior long-term outcomes for elderly patients ≥ 65 years with CRNETs.