Number of Lymph Nodes Retrieved and Reliability in Nodal Staging in Stage II Colorectal Carcinoma

摘要

Accurate determination of status of lymph node (LN) is pivotal to precise staging and predicting oncologic outcome in colorectal carcinoma (CRC). A variety of outcomes in stage II patients might be, at least in part, at fault in understaging by inadequate number of LNs examined. This study suggests that examining a greater number of LNs increases the likelihood of accurate nodal staging and that a minimum of ten LNs per surgical specimen should be harvested and examined to label a pT3 or pT4 CRC as node-negative.