title: Cancer seeding contributes to intestinal anastomotic dehiscence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Surgical wounds in cancer patients have a relatively high dehiscence rate. Although colon cancer resections are performed so as to include macroscopically non-involved tissues, some cancer cells can be present in the line of transection. The local healing process may facilitate proliferation of these localized cancer cells and the high cytokine concentration within the healing wound may also attract cancer cells from distant sites to migrate into the wound area. The growing tumor cells may then stretch the wound, hampering its contraction process.
  
  
  METHODS
  The aim of the study was to monitor and compare, using immunohistochemical methods, the healing process of intestinal anastomosis in both normal rats and in rats with disseminated cancer (the CC531 colon cancer model).
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significantly higher rate of anastomotic dehiscence in the group of rats with disseminated cancer, than in the group of normal rats. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the levels of mononuclear wound infiltration or of formation of connective tissue or new vessels. All anastomotic wounds in animals with disseminated cancer had abundant infiltrates of both migrating and proliferating cancer cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We confirmed that the environment of a healing wound attracts cancer cells. Migration of cancer cells to the wound and centrifugal cancer proliferation may adversely affect the healing process and cause wound disruption.
authors.affiliation: Deptartment of Human Epigenetics, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland. stanczyk@poczta.onet.pl.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stanczyk
authors.forename: Waldemar L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Olszewski
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gewartowska
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maruszynski
mesh_terms: D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000818:Animals; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007422:Intestines / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D009366:Neoplasm Seeding; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013529:Surgical Wound Dehiscence / Q000209:etiology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D014945:Wound Healing