Invasion profile of colorectal carcinoma

Abstract

It appears also that human colorectal cancers associated with good prognoses are characterized by good cellular differentiation, smooth margins, marked lymphoplasmacellular infiltrate and intraluminal growth. The less differentiated adenocarcinomas have a sessile or flat shape, grow in a highly invasive fashion, metastasize early and do not provoke a cellular reaction. The correlations found between intraluminal growth, degree of differentiation, smooth margins and lymphocytic infiltration seem to be the result of a situation in which the immune competence of the host and the cancerous cellular change interplay in a complex fasion. The results of a study of the invasion profiles of colorectal cancer agree with earlier data on tumor shape and progression. The question whether varying degrees of intraluminal projections are actually stages in the evolution of the tumor or indicate different degrees of malignancy cannot definitely be answered, but the correlation of percentage invasion with 5 yr survival and other prognostic factors confirms that the invasion profile is not a random phenomenon, but rather reflects the biologic potential of the tumor.