Histopathologic evaluation of survival time in patients with colorectal carcinoma

A histopathologic study was done on tissues from 117 patients with colorectal carcinoma, and we compared data on 57 patients who died of a recurrence within 2 years (group I) with 60 others who survived for over 10 years (group II). All patients were surgically treated and followed for over 10 years. Particular attention was directed to the very advancing margin of the tumor, and we examined invading modes of sprouting tumor cells, reactive fibrosis, and inflammatory infiltration around the tumor, in addition to the other clinicopathologic features. In group II, extensive sprouting of individual tumor cells occurred less often, and intense reactive fibrosis and marked inflammatory infiltration around the tumor were more frequent than in group I in which conspicuous lymphatic and vascular permeations were often present. We propose that the invading mode of sprouting tumor cells and the presence or absence of reactive fibrosis and inflammatory infiltration at the advancing margin of the colorectal tumor are of prognostic value.