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Editor's Correspondence
June 25, 2012

Risk Factors for Young-Onset Advanced Colorectal Cancer

Author Affiliations

Author Affiliation: The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, New York.

Arch Intern Med. 2012;172(12):971-972. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2012.1558

You and colleagues1 reported the independent risk factors for advanced-stage colorectal cancer in their interesting study. The significance of the risk factors was supported by “hazard ratio” statistics. Unfortunately, little information was given in the “Methods” section regarding the use of hazard ratios, probably owing to the space constraints of a Research Letter. I think that the appropriateness of the use of hazard ratio in the setting described in their study is questionable. I would like to encourage the authors to elaborate on how the hazard ratios were calculated and the model used, possibly with an example of the survival curves generated so that the proper use of hazard ratio in their Research Letter could be appreciated.

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