Patients with stage I-III colon cancer face higher locoregional recurrence and lower survival rates when complications occur.

• 28% of patients had postoperative complications; 4.9% developed anastomotic leakage needing re-intervention.
• The 5-year locoregional recurrence rate was 13.5% for those with any complications versus 6.8% for those without.

Anastomotic leakage is the only complication independently linked to increased recurrence risk.

• 5-year overall survival was 78.9% without complications, dropping to 62.7% for patients with non-surgical complications only.