Colorectal cancer: relationship of histologic grading to disease prognosis.

Ninety patients underwent curative surgery for colorectal adenocarcinoma and they were followed for a period of 3 years. The aim of this retrospective study was to relate the cell differentiation (grading) and TNM classification of the UICC (1978) with the disease evaluation and patient survival. The results showed a consistent relation between grading and lymph node metastasis in patients with moderately and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, whereas no relationship was found between grading and local invasion of the tumor. Therefore, histocytologic grading of colorectal cancer appears to significantly influence survival grading parameters, and it may be a good method for monitoring the disease and follow-up of the patients.