Clinicopathologic Factors Identify Sporadic Mismatch Repair–Defective Colon Cancers

Abstract

Identification of sporadic mismatch repair (MMR)-defective colon cancers is increasingly demanded for decisions on adjuvant therapies. We evaluated clinicopathologic factors for the identification of these prognostically favorable tumors. Histopathologic features in 238 consecutive colon cancers were linked to MMR status based on immunostaining and BRAF mutation status.MMR defects were identified in 22.7% of the tumors, with 46 classified as sporadic. When the clinical parameters of age, sex, and proximal tumor location were combined with the morphologic features with the highest relative risks (RRs), eg, mucinous differentiation (RR, 9.0), tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (RR, 7.5), absence of necrosis (RR, 7.5), and expanding growth pattern (RR, 5.0) into a 7-factor index, the presence of at least 4 features identified the MMR-defective tumors with 92.3% sensitivity and 75.3% specificity and excluded 61.5% of the tumors from MMR testing. This clinicopathologic index thus successfully selects MMR-defective colon cancers.