The risk of adult neoplasia after childhood appendectomy

Abstract

Several studies have suggested that appendectomy is correlated with the development of cancer later in life. Associations have been shown with colon cancer, breast cancer and lymphomas, however the data is inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to see if a relationship exists between appendectomy in one’s youth and the later development of cancer in a rural geographically stable population. A prospective cohort study was undertaken at The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, a small, rural, 140 bed teaching institution. Patients who had appendectomy during the years 1950–1959 and were less than 25 years of age were included. Patients who had inguinal hernioraphy during the same time period were used as controls. Patients were identified via the hospital operating room log, and data was collected from the medical record. The fishers exact test, one tailed t test, and Chi squared test were used to analyze the data. The protocol received IRB approval Four hundred forty patients were initially identified, 330 who had appendectomy and 136 who had hernioraphy. One hundred eleven of these charts were current, allowing for review. There were 81 appendectomy patients and 30 hernioraphy patients. There were 15 cancers of all types in the appendectomy group (18.52%) and 1 cancer in the hernia group (3.33%). This difference is significant (p = 0.034 Fishers exact test). This small cohort study shows an increased risk of all cancers in a group that had appendectomy before age 25 as compared to a group that underwent hernioraphy during the same time period. The difference between these groups warrants further study.