Histological variants of colorectal adenocarcinoma and clinicomorphological association

Besides TNM staging system, some special histological features of colonic carcinomas are associated with variable clinicopathological parameters. The objective was to provide new information of correlation between various histomorphological parameters together with available clinical data and each special feature

A retrospective study of 162 materials collected from subjects with first diagnosed as adenocarcinoma of colorectum in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital over a period of 2 years from 2002 to 2003.

One hundred and forty-seven cases of prominent cribiform feature are related to patient age (p = 0.025) and infiltrative margin (p = 0.006). Thirty-two cases with mucinous component are associated with patient age (p = 0.009) and tumor depth (p = 0.015). Thirteen cases with signet ring cell morphology are correlated with nodal and distant organ metastasis (p = 0.023 and p = 0.020, respectively) as well as angiolymphatic invasion (p = 0.015). In addition the size of signet ring cell containing carcinomas is also related to location (p = 0.036). It is larger in proximal site and smaller in distal counterpart. The authors did not find any statistical significance in 9 cases of medullary carcinoma. Notably, our 33 cases showed biphasic or triphasic feature.

Each distinct histological variant of colorectal adenocarcinoma is associated with some different clinicopathological variables,' mostly effecting clinical outcome. Pathologists should be concerned with special histological subtypes of colorectal adeonocarcinomas and communicate with physicians for proper management.