Risk factor analysis for inaccurate pre-operative MRI staging in rectal cancer

Various tumor characteristics might lead to inaccurate local MRI-defined stage of rectal cancer and the purpose of this study was to explore the clinicopathological factors that impact on the precision pre-treatment MRI-defined stage of rectal cancer.

A retrospectively analysis was conducted in non-metastatic rectal cancer patients who received radical tumor resection without neoadjuvant treatment during 2007-2015 in the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. Clinical T stage and N stage defined by pelvic enhanced MRI and pathological stage were compared and patients were subdivided into accurate-staging, over-staging and under-staging subgroups. Logistic regressions were used to explore risk factors for over-staging or under-staging.

Five hundred fifty-one cases of patients were collected. Among them, 109 cases (19.4%) of patients were over-T-staged and 50 cases (8.9%) were under-T-staged, while 78 cases (13.9%) were over-N-staged and 75 cases (13.3%) were under-N-staged. Logistic regression suggested that pre-operative bowel obstruction was risk factor for over-T-staging (OR = 3.120, 95%CI: 1.662-5.857, P < 0.001) as well as over-N-staging (OR = 3.494, 95%CI: 1.797-6.794, P < 0.001), while mucinous adenocarcinoma was a risk factor for under-N-staging (OR = 4.049, 95%CI: 1.876-8.772, P < 0.001). Patients with larger tumor size were at lower risk for over-T-staging (OR = 0.837, 95%CI: 0.717-0.976, P = 0.024) and higher risk for over-N-staging (OR = 1.434, 95%CI: 1.223-1.680, P < 0.001).

Bowel obstruction, mucinous adenocarcinoma and tumor size might have impact on the pre-operative MRI T staging or N staging of rectal cancer. Our results reminded clinicians to assess clinical stage individually in such rectal cancer patients.