The pathological assessment of total mesorectal excision: what are the relevant resection margins?

An accurate pathological reporting of rectal cancer specimens has important implications concerning patients' prognosis and further clinical management. Since locoregional recurrence and prognosis in rectal cancer is especially influenced by the extent of extramural tumor spread into the mesorectal lymphovascular fatty tissue, systematic investigation of the status of the circumferential mesorectal resection margin is a point of major importance to determine the completeness of tumor resection. Careful macroscopic assessment of the resection specimen should be performed to monitor the quality of mesorectal excision.