ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:

Lymph node metastasis is the leading prognostic factor to decide adjuvant therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk factors of lymph node metastasis in patients with colon carcinomas.

METHODS:

A review was performed of 37 patients who underwent curative resection for colon carcinoma between June 01 2005 and May 31 2008. The following clinic and pathologic variables were evaluated: sex, age, location and size of the tumor, presence of synchrone colon carcinoma, lymphovascular invasion, histologic grade, lymphocytic invasion, perineural invasion, and number of the dissected lymph nodes.

RESULTS:

Lymph node metastases were present in 15 (40.5%) of the patients. Presence of lymphovascular was the statistically significant risk factor for lymph node metastasis. Although perineural invasion seems to increase the lymph node metastases with multivariate analysis but it is not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION:

Lymphovascular invasion is the risk factor for lymph node metastasis in colon carcinoma. Probably, perinueral invasion is another factor that increases the lymph node metastases.