Recurrence after Curative Resection of Submucosal Invasive Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Of 104 patients who underwent curative resection for submucosal invasive colorectal cancer in our institution from 1988 to 1997, 6 patients (5.8%) had tumor recurrence, and 4 patients (3.9%) had local and lymph node recurrence. Of the four patients, the tumors were located in the rectum in 3, and in the descending colon in 1. Histopathological study revealed that 3 patients had moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma and one had well differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma. Three had lymph node metastasis. All 4 patients who had local and lymph node recurrence had lymph vessel invasion. The Depth of cancer invasion was sm3 in these 4 patients. In addition, local and lymph node recurrence occurred higher in the patients who had moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma, lymph node metastasis and lymph vessel invasion. Among the 106 patients, 2 (1.9%) had solitary liver metastasis, and partial hepatic resection was performed with no evidence of recurrence. Liver metastasis was not observed to be a risk factor in this histopathological study of submocasal invasive colorectal cancers.