Histopathological variables in liver metastases of patients with stage IV colorectal cancer: potential prognostic relevance of poorly differentiated clusters

The prognosis of patients with colorectal liver metastases (LM) is mostly established on clinical variables or on the anatomic extent of colorectal cancer (CRC). Histopathological factors of LM which may actually reflect the biological aggressiveness of the tumor are not routinely considered to define the risk of worse clinical outcome in those patients. The number of poorly differentiated clusters (PDC) of neoplastic cells in primary CRC is associated with metastatic risk and bad prognosis, but PDC presence in LM has been barely analyzed thus far.
Source: Human Pathology - Category: Pathology Authors: Source Type: research