Clinical and Pathological Characteristics of Mucinous Colorectal Adenocarcinoma: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Background Mucinous adenocarcinoma accounts for approximately 5% - 15% of all colorectal cancers. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with mucinous colorectal adenocarcinoma. Patients and Methods This retrospective study was carried out by reviewing the medical records of 70 mucinous colorectal cancer (MCC) patients who were diagnosed and treated at a tertiary academic hospital between 2005 and 2010. For the comparative analysis, 491 patients with non-mucinous colorectal cancer (NMCC) were included. Results Of 561 patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma, 70 patients (12.5%) had the mucinous type. There were 42 (60%) men and 28 (40%) women, with a median age of 55 years old (range 24 - 81 years) included in the study. We did not find any differences regarding the patients’ mean age (P = 0.408) and male/female ratio (P = 0.700) between the MCC and NMCC; however, there was a predilection for the right colon and sigmoid colon in the MCC, when compared to the NMCC (P = 0.012). In addition, the MCC tended to have a larger tumor size (P = 0.004), higher histological grade (P < 0.001), higher node stage (P < 0.001), higher number of dissected nodes (P = 0.013), higher number of positive nodes (P < 0.001), and a higher rate of perineural invasion (P = 0.013) compared to the NMCC. Conclusions This study indicates that most clinicopathological characteristics of MCC are different from those of NMCC. In addition, there was an association between the mucinous subtype and adverse pathological features in the patients with colorectal cancer.