To investigate the effect of pathology risk factors on prognosis of stage I rectal cancer patients.

Data of patients with stage I rectal cance from January 2011 to January 2013 in the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University were retrospectively collected. 178 cases were included and were divided into two groups according to the presence of high risk pathological factors. 119 cases were defined as high-risk group including 60 males and 59 females, and 59 cases were in non high-risk group, the male cases were 33 and females were 26 respectively. Median follow-up time was 33 months.

There were no difference in the sex, age, macroscopic type, differentiation, numbers of lymph node, depth of invasion and location (χ²=0.480, t=2.023, χ²=2.244, χ²=5.614, t=2.387, χ²=1.590, χ²=3.099, all P values >0.05) . No recurrence and metastasis were observed in non-high-risk group while local recurrence and metastasis were observed in high-risk group. There was difference in survival time between two groups (HR=0.86, 95%CI 0.56~0.97). Lymph vascular infiltration, nervous invasion and low differentiation were the main factors that affected survival.

Closely follow up should be performed on the high-risk stage I rectal cancer patients.