Abstract

Background and Objectives: Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the fourth cancer-related cause of death worldwide.CRC is a multi-stage cancer, which is curable during the early stages of the disease. Therefore, determining the time ofcut-point existence could improve treatment planning and help directly allocate resources. This study aims to determinethe cut point in the age of CRC diagnosis. Methods: This study, covering the course 1985 to 2012, consisted of 345colorectal cancer patients registered in Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran and followed up to 2013. The cut-point in theage of CRC diagnosis was obtained using a mixture cure model. The data were analyzed using SPSS and R, V. 20 and2.15.0, respectively. Results: The results showed that the cut point in the age of CRC diagnosis was 50 years. Basedon our estimation, 65 of the patients diagnosed with CRC at or younger than 50 were cured, while 31 of themdiagnosed older than 50 were cured, and the younger group had a better survival over the older group. Conclusion:Since access to a cut-point and analysis of created prognostic groups are important in screening and treatment planning,our results suggested that it is better to estimate the cut-point in the age of curable cancers in early stages via survivalcure models, and the cure rate would increase by CRC timely screening.