Routine elastin staining improves venous invasion detection in colorectal carcinoma

Colorectal carcinoma is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in North America. Invasion of tumor cells into lymphatic and blood vessels is an imperative step in the metastatic progression of colorectal carcinoma.

This is a before-and-after study conducted by the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of Mount Sinai Medical Center of Florida to assess the impact on venous invasion (VI) detection by implementing routine elastin staining on all tumor-containing blocks per case, where feasible, in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) resection specimens.

Clinicopathological parameters of CRC specimens were collected from January until December 2021 (n = 93) for the pre-implementation cohort and from January until December 2022 (n = 61) for the post-implementation cohort.

VI detection was significantly increased in the post-implementation cohort at a rate of 50.8 % compared to only 18.6 % in the pre-implementation cohort. The majority of VI identified in the pre-implementation cohort was extramural (61.5 %), whereas in the post-implementation cohort it was intramural (41.9 %). On univariate analysis, implementation of routine elastin stain was associated with strikingly increased VI detection rates (OR = 4.5, p-value < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, after adjusting for other clinicopathologic variables, elastin staining retained its independent statistically significant impact on VI detection (OR = 2.6, p-value = 0.034). Of note, there were no significant differences in the pre- and post-implementation cohorts in the frequency of nodal metastases, tumor extent, histologic grade, perineural invasion, T stage or M stage.

Based on our results and what has been published recently, we confirm an increase in the VI detection rate after implementing routine elastin staining on all tumor-containing blocks in CRC resection specimens.