PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Annika Resch AU - Lars Harbaum AU - Marion J Pollheimer AU - Peter Kornprat AU - Richard A Lindtner AU - Cord Langner TI - Grading lymph node metastasis: a feasible approach for prognostication of patients with stage III colorectal cancer AID - 10.1136/jclinpath-2014-202772 DP - 2015 Sep 01 TA - Journal of Clinical Pathology PG - 742--745 VI - 68 IP - 9 4099 - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/68/9/742.short 4100 - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/68/9/742.full SO - J Clin Pathol2015 Sep 01; 68 AB - This study aimed to assess the clinicopathological significance of tumour differentiation of metastatic lymph node tissue in patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) stage III colorectal cancer. In a cohort of 145 patients, lymph node grades were G1 in 77 (53.1%), G2 in 41 (28.3%) and G3 in 27 (18.6%) cases, respectively. Despite differences in 77 (53.1%) cases, primary tumour and lymph node grade correlated significantly (Somer's D=0.639; p<0.001). Lymph node grade was significantly associated with N classification (p=0.009), tumour size (p=0.024) and lymphovascular invasion (p=0.004). Patients with lymph node grade G1 had better progression-free survival (p=0.031) and cancer-specific survival (p=0.008). Multivariable analysis identified lymph node grade as independent predictor of cancer-specific survival in this cohort. In conclusion, lymph node grade emerged as a promising novel prognostic variable for patients with AJCC/UICC stage III disease. Additional studies are warranted to validate this new finding.