Prognostic determinants of patients with lateral nodal involvement by rectal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To clarify the characteristics related to long-term survival in patients with lateral nodal involvement.


BACKGROUND
Few reports have addressed the prognostic determinants in patients with actual lateral nodal involvement, which are important in determining treatment.


METHODS
Review of a prospective colorectal database at a single institution for a 10-year period (1987-1996) identified 53 patients with lateral nodal involvement.


RESULTS
All nine patients who underwent resection of synchronous distant metastases developed recurrence and died within 3 years. Of the 44 patients without distant metastases, 25 (57%) developed locoregional recurrence, and the overall 5-year survival rate was 32%. Multivariate analysis showed that age, total number of involved nodes (mesorectal and lateral), and circumferential surgical margin involvement had independently predicted postoperative survival. Patients with three or fewer nodes involved accounted for one third of lateral-positive patients, with a 5-year survival rate of 75%, whereas the 18 patients with four or more involved nodes had a 5-year survival rate of 4%. All eight patients with circumferential margin involvement died of carcinoma, and seven developed locoregional recurrences. Involvement of other pelvic organs had no effect on prognosis, nor were adverse prognostic outcomes noted by the region of lateral involvement.


CONCLUSIONS
For patients with lateral involvement, the most important prognostic variables are distant metastases, the total number of nodes involved, circumferential margin involvement, and age. Selection of patients based on these variables may lead to the identification of a subgroup for whom lateral nodal dissection could be the first treatment choice.
Ueno
H
H
Department of Surgery I, National Defense Medical College, Saitama, Japan. hmueno@aol.com
Mochizuki
H
H
Hashiguchi
Y
Y
Hase
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate