Solitary Metastatic Lymph Node Distribution And Its Influencing Factors In Colorectal Cancer

Objective: Colorectal cancer is not only one of the most commonmalignant tumors in the digestive system, but also one of the mainreasons for the cancer death. To review the solitary metastatic lymphnode distribution and clinical significance in colorectal cancer and toexplore the regular pattern of sentinel lymph node （SLN） metastasisand its influent factors in colorectal cancer.Methods: The clinical pathological data of81patients withcolorectal cancer who underwent surgical resection in the First AffiliatedHospital of Guangxi Medical University from September2008toNovember2009was collected. All cases were confirmed by the routinepathological detection that they had only one lymph node metastasis andmore than twelve lymph nodes were examined. The study consisted of51men (62.9%) and30women (37.1%) whose average age was58.7yearsold (range29to82years). And it contained43rectal cancer (53%) and38colon cancer (47%).Results: A total of1520nodes (average18.7±6.3per patient; range 12to41) were identified in this study group. The results showed that thesingle metastatic nodes that59cases (72.8%) were found SLN in thenearest peri colorectal nodal area,18cases (22.2%) in the middle groupand4cases (5%) in the central group. Among22cases (27.2%) ofcolorectal cancer with “skip”metastasis. χ~2test showed that tumor size,bowel wall circumference, depth of bowel wall invasion, tumordifferentiation and so on was not significant correlation with “skip”metastasis (P>0.05).Conclusion: The majority SLN of colorectal cancer is distributed inthe pericolorectal nodal area, but the rate of “skip” metastasis is muchhigher than expected. At the same time the tumor size, bowel wallcircumference, depth of bowel wall invasion, tumor differentiation and soon are not related with “skip” metastasis.