Colorectal Low-, High-Mucinous Carcinomas Should Be Differentiated in Clinical Settings

Researchers have discovered that high colorectal mucinous adenocarcinoma (MC) is a prognostic factor in colorectal cancer (CRC) and it is genetically different from other CRCs, according to a study published online ahead of print in Cancer.¹

CRC MCs can be divided into 2 groups according to glandular appearance: low-grade MC and high-grade MC. Researchers investigated the clinicopathological and genetic differences between low-MC and high-MC with next-generation sequencing.

A total of 1,373 patients with CRC who had undergone surgical resection between 2000 and 2012 were analyzed for the study. Forty patients (2.9%) had MC and 13 patients had high-MC.

Results showed that patients with high-MC had significantly shorter disease-free survival and overall survival than those with low-MC. Low-MC was linked to a higher number of mutations than high-MC.

Investigators concluded that “Both the clinicopathological differences and the genetic differences suggest that low-MC and high-MC should be distinguished in the clinical setting.”

Reference

1. Yoshioka Y, Togashi Y, Chikugo T, et al. Clinicopathological and genetic differences between low-grade and high-grade colorectal mucinous adenocarcinomas [published online ahead of print October 21, 2015]. Cancer. doi: 10.1002/cncr.29676.