Colorectal carcinoma: Diagnostic, prognostic, and molecular features

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

320 Scopus citations

Abstract

Surgical resection is the primary treatment modality for colorectal cancer, and the pathologic assessment of the resection specimen provides data that is essential for patient management, including the estimation of postoperative outcome and the rationale for adjuvant therapy. The essential elements of the pathological assessment of colorectal cancer resection specimens include the pathologic determination of TNM stage, tumor type, histologic grade, status of resection margins, and vascular invasion. The prognostic and/or predictive value of these elements, as well as guidelines for their derivation and interpretation, are reviewed in detail. Other tissue-based prognostic factors that are strongly suggested by existing data to have stage-independent prognostic value or to predict response to adjuvant therapy but that have not yet been validated for routine patient care are also reviewed. These include perineural invasion, tumor border configuration, host immune response to tumor, and molecular features such as microsatellite instability or loss of heterozygosity of chromosome 18. The need for high-quality, reproducible pathologic data in the care of the colorectal cancer patient, and the dependence of that data on standardization of all aspects of pathological assessment, is emphasized.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)376-388
Number of pages13
JournalModern Pathology
Volume16
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2003
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Circumferential margin
  • Colon cancer
  • Grade
  • Microsatellite instability
  • Pathology
  • Prognostic factors
  • Rectal cancer
  • TNM stage

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pathology and Forensic Medicine

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Colorectal carcinoma: Diagnostic, prognostic, and molecular features'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this