Table 6

Recommendations about numbers of lymph nodes to examine in colorectal cancer resection specimens

Fist author (Ref)Year of publicationStudy objectiveNo. lymph nodes
Hermanek261993Maximise ascertainment of Dukes’s stage C disease20+
Goldstein271996Maximise detection of nodal metastases17–20
Maurel281998Optimal ascription to node positive or node negative categories8+
Cserni291999Maximise proportion of node positive cases6–16
Wong301999Generate stage distribution comparable with US National Cancer Data Base report14
Goldstein312002Maximise detection of nodal metastasesAll available
Johnson322002Conformity to American Joint Committee on Cancer recommendations12
Cserni332002Reliability of node negative ascriptionAll available