Table 1

Demographic and clinical characteristics of colorectal cancers diagnosed during 2001–2010, and included in the analyses

	Overall (n=35 142) %	Referral interval analysis* (n=19 798) %	Diagnosis–treatment interval analysis† (n=29 445) %	Referral–treatment interval analysis‡ (n=17 622) %
Age
<60 years	16.2	16.6	18.4	18.1
60–69 years	24.4	26.6	26.9	28.6
70–79 years	34.2	35.3	35.2	35.9
80+ years	25.2	21.5	19.5	17.5
Deprivation category
1 (least deprived)	17.6	18.1	18.5	18.8
2	19.3	19.6	19.8	19.8
3	18.7	19.2	18.8	19.2
4	20.8	20.4	20.4	20.2
5 (most deprived)	23.6	22.7	22.5	22.0
Sex
Female	42.7	41.6	41.4	40.9
Male	57.3	58.4	58.6	59.1
Site
Colon	61.3	53.2	60.5	52.6
Rectal	38.7	46.8	39.5	47.4
First treatment
Surgery	65.2	64.9	77.7	73.4
Chemotherapy	7.0	8.0	8.3	9.1
Radiotherapy	7.3	9.6	8.7	10.8
Chemo/radiotherapy§	4.4	6.0	5.3	6.7
No cancer-directed treatment¶	16.1	11.5	–	–
Period of diagnosis
2001–2005	56.9	56.0	57.5	55.7
2006–2010	43.1	44.0	42.5	44.3
Stage
I	10.7	12.2	12.5	13.5
II	24.5	25.3	28.9	28.2
III	22.4	22.4	26.4	25.2
IV	22.6	20.9	17.5	16.9
Unstaged	14.1	11.4	8.0	7.3
Staged post-treatment	5.7	7.9	6.8	8.9
Comorbidities
None	86.5	89.6	88.2	90.6
1–2	11.0	8.8	9.8	8.1
3+	2.5	1.6	2.0	1.4

*Interval between general practitioner (GP) referral and first hospital appointment; includes cases for whom date of GP referral and date of first hospital appointment were available.
†Interval between diagnosis and first cancer-directed treatment; includes cases for whom date of diagnosis and date of first cancer-directed treatment were available.
‡Interval between GP referral and first cancer-directed treatment; includes cases for whom date of GP referral and date of first cancer-directed treatment were available.
§First chemotherapy and radiotherapy received on the same day.
¶No cancer-directed surgery or chemotherapy or radiotherapy.