title: Alterations of lymph nodes evaluation after colon cancer resection: patient and tumor heterogeneity should be taken into consideration.
abstract: Despite the adequacy of nodal evaluation was gradually improved for colon cancer (CC), rare attention has been paid for the effect of patient and tumor heterogeneity on nodal evaluation. We identified 109902 CC patients in stage I-III from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) database during 2004-2013. The lymph nodes evaluations were separately assessed in different patient- and tumor-related features, including gender, age, T stage, histology, tumor differentiation, tumor size and tumor location. The 5-year cancer specific survival (CSS) was calculated with Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank tests were used to compare the differences of CSS in patients with ≥12 and <12 lymph nodes examined. Here, we identified features including gender, age, T stage, tumor differentiation, tumor size and location were independently associated with the median number of lymph node, the rate of ≥12 lymph nodes and the rate of node positivity of CC patients. We then divided CC patients into 29 subgroups according to different patient- and tumor-related features. The median number of lymph node presented a large variance from 12 to 24, the rate of ≥12 lymph nodes increased from 53.2% to 91.2% under the combined effect of patient and tumor heterogeneity. Furthermore, the positive association between increased lymph nodes count and improved survival couldn't be observed in 8261 CC patients with the effect of this heterogeneity. In conclusion, the tumor and patient heterogeneity lead to large alterations of nodal evaluation; we should pay more attention to this effect in clinical practice.
authors: Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.|Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cancer Institute & Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors: Xu
authors: X
authors: Guan
authors: Follow Up Center, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors: Shuai
authors: S
authors: Li
authors: Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors: Zheng
authors: Z
authors: Jiang
authors: Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors: Zheng
authors: Z
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors: Zhixun
authors: Z
authors: Zhao
authors: Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors: Song
authors: S
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cancer Institute & Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Yang
authors: Department of Colorectal Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.|Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cancer Institute & Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors: Xishan
authors: X
authors: Wang
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D018426:SEER Program; D012737:Sex Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: SEER; colon cancer; lymph nodes; patient features; tumor features