[Surgical treatment strategy for cT4bM0 colon cancer]

Colon cancer may invade the adjacent organ in the absence of distant metastasis, which is called stage T4bM0 colon cancer according to the 7th edition of TNM staging system. It is not rare in clinical setting, and usually recognized intraoperatively. How to deal with this situation is a big challenge for the surgeons. It is difficult to distinguish between dense adhesion and cancerous invasion. Intraoperative biopsy should be avoided because of the risk of tumor cell dissemination and frozen often gives false-negative results. After evaluating the resectability of the tumor sufficiently, the surgeon should make every effort to do an en bloc multivisceral resection and to achieve a margin-free (R0) resection if there is no absolute contraindication. This effort will bring long-term prognosis benefit for the patients with stage cT4bM0 colon cancer.