Prognosis in colorectal carcinoma. A reassessment of the pathologist's role.

The prognostic significance of some pathologic features was evaluated in a series of 177 patients with colorectal carcinoma consecutively treated by curative resection in a department of Surgery from 1960 to 1981. There were 90 men and 87 women with a mean age of 59.2 +/- 12.8 and a range from 23 to 88 years. Current follow-up information was obtained in 92.7% of the patients. Pathologic staging as classified according to a modification of Dukes' original scheme was found to be the most important prognostic factor. Evaluation of lymphatic and venous invasion, histologic differentiation, and site of tumors also provided valuable prognostic information. Size, configuration, mucin-producing ability and the morphologic evaluation of the so-called "host immunologic response" were found to be irrelevant for the prognosis when the influence of the other indices was controlled.