Colon cancer survival could depend on where the tumor originates.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco followed a group of patients who had left-sided tumors and a group of patients with right-sided tumors.
They found that those who had tumors on the left side of the colon survived nearly three years while those with tumors on the right side survived just over a year and a half.
Individuals with left-sided tumors also responded better to standard medications used to treat the disease.
More research needs to be done but experts say one theory could be that the biology on the right side differs from the biology on the left side of the colon.
