Clinical Impact of Histological Heterogeneity in the Metastatic Lymph Nodes of Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical impact of histological heterogeneity in patients with node-positive colorectal cancer (CRC).

Patients and methods: One hundred and twenty-nine patients who underwent curative surgical resection for histological node-positive CRC were enrolled. Patients were divided according to the histological heterogeneity in the primary lesion into p-hetero and p-homo groups. The p-hetero group was further divided according to histological heterogeneity in the metastatic lymph nodes into n-hetero and n-homo groups.

Results: There were no significant differences between p-homo and p-hetero groups and between n-homo and n-hetero groups in prognosis. However, the recurrence-free survival rate of the n-homo group was significantly lower than that of the n-hetero group in the N2 category.

Conclusion: Histological heterogeneity in metastatic lymph nodes may be useful for predicting prognosis, and prognosis in those with histological heterogeneity in a metastatic lymph node is not necessarily poor, even in those of the N2 category.

Keywords: Histological heterogeneity; colorectal cancer; metastasis.