Retrospective Study about the Impact of the Negative Lymph Node Count on the Survival Rate of Stage III Colon Cancer

Abstract

Background Colorectal cancer is the fourth most frequently diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. In 2019, an estimated 101,420 new cases of colon cancer and approximately 44,180 cases of rectal cancer occur. During the same year, an estimated 51,020 people will die of colon and rectal cancer combined. Aim of the Work The aim of this study was to assess the role of negative lymph node count as a predictor of prognosis in patients with stage III colon cancer. Patients and Methods During the five years period from January 2013 till the end of December 2018; about 2417 patients presented to the Clinical Oncology Department, Ain Shams University Hospital per year. Out of which, about 132 cases were pathologically diagnosed as colorectal cancer cases of which 42 cases met the inclusion criteria of our study. Results The current study showed that increased NLN was insignificantly correlated with improved PFS in stage III colon cancer. Subgroup analysis found that the prognostic value of NLN was independent on gender, age, sideness of disease. These findings may be related to the lack of our sample size; more importantly, other mechanisms involved are unclear. Here, it must be mentioned that there was no significant difference in the survival between the NLN ≤11 and >11 groups in stage IIIB disease compared with that in stage IIIA and IIIC disease. The patients with stage IIIB accounted for 59.5 % of the total number of patients, while the number of IIIA and IIIC patients only accounted for 40.4%, making it difficult to draw meaningful results. Conclusion Our study suggests that NLN cannot function as independent indicator of survival of patients with stage III colon cancer. Regardless patient characteristics (gender, age or sideness of disease).