1. Poorly differentiated clusters (PDC) in colorectal cancer: what is and ought to be known
- Author
-
Stefania Bettelli, Valeria Barresi, Luca Reggiani Bonetti, Federica Domati, and Cristian Palmiere
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Pathology ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Histology ,Colorectal cancer ,Poorly differentiated clusters ,Tumor grading ,2734 ,Biopsy ,Cell Count ,Review ,Haematoxylin ,Disease-Free Survival ,Pathology and Forensic Medicine ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Predictive Value of Tests ,Biomarkers, Tumor ,Medicine ,Humans ,Clinical significance ,Neoplasm Invasiveness ,Progression-free survival ,Neoplasm Grading ,Tumor ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,business.industry ,Cell Differentiation ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,030104 developmental biology ,chemistry ,Neoplasm Micrometastasis ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Lymphatic Metastasis ,Cancer cell ,Disease Progression ,business ,Colorectal Neoplasms ,Biomarkers - Abstract
Background The counting of poorly differentiated clusters of 5 or more cancer cells lacking a gland-like structure in a tumor mass has recently been identified among the histological features predictive of poor prognosis in colorectal cancer. Main body Poorly differentiated clusters can easily be recognized in the histological sections of colorectal cancer routinely stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Despite some limitations related to specimen fragmentation, counting can also be assessed in endoscopic biopsies. Based on the number of poorly differentiated clusters that appear under a microscopic field of a ×20 objective lens (i.e., a microscopic field with a major axis of 1 mm), colorectal cancer can be graded into malignancies as follows: tumors with
- Published
- 2016