text_1: 1-1% of colorectal cancer patients are diagnosed with regional or distant metastases.
text_2: DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Medicare linked database who were 67 years of age and older and had a primary diagnosis of colon cancer during 1992-2002, as well as a group of Medicare beneficiaries who resided in Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results areas but who were not diagnosed with cancer.