[Squamous change of adenocarcinoma of the large intestine]

Of 986 patients with resected adenocarcinoma of the large intestine, 48 (4.8%) showed various grades of squamous change. The average age was 61.1 years, male to female ratio was 1 to 0.92. Patients experiencing this change had rectal cancer (27.1%), cancer of the sigmoid colon (22.9%), cecum (20.8%), ascending colon (16.7%) and transverse colon (10.4%), 77.1% of the patients showed Borrmann I and II, 81.2% had cancers large than 5 cm in diameter. 95.8% of the cases metamorphosed from well differentiated adenocarcinoma. Squamous change in adenocarcinoma of the large intestine was found in advanced cases, thus it should be considered that this change occurs as a secondary metamorphosis of the adenocarcinoma. Lymph node metastasis was found in 54.2% of the patients.