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Prognostic Factors in Staging of Colorectal Cancer

  • Chapter
Colorectal Cancer

Part of the book series: Boerhaave Series for Postgraduate Medical Education ((BSPM,volume 18))

Abstract

An accurate staging classification, which is essential for good management of any cancer, should highlight the major factors which influence survival. Cancer of the colon and rectum spreads in a predictable fashion through successive layers of the intestinal wall and spreads to lymph nodes or distant organs. In 1932 Dukes used this pattern in tumour spread as the basis for the staging classification of colorectal cancer, which bears his name. He reported the results of 215 patients with operable rectal cancer and staged them into 3 categories—A, B and C—according to the extent of bowel wall penetration by tumour and the presence or absence of lymph node metastases. A few years later Gabriel et al. (1) modified the classification by subdividing stage C (positive lymph nodes) into types 1 and 2 depending on the level of lymph node involvement. Although the Dukes’ classification originally was applied to carcinoma of the rectum, it was implied what the staging could also be used for colonic tumours.

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© 1980 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers by, The Hague/Boston/London

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Wood, C.B. (1980). Prognostic Factors in Staging of Colorectal Cancer. In: Welvaart, K., Blumgart, L.H., Kreuning, J. (eds) Colorectal Cancer. Boerhaave Series for Postgraduate Medical Education, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9158-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9158-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-9160-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-9158-3

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