Cytokeratin immunostaining reveals micrometastasis in negative hematoxylin-eosin lymph nodes of resected stage I-II (pT2-pT3) colorectal cancer

Stage I-II colorectal cancer (pT2-3, pN0 UICC-TNM Classification) has aproximately a 30% 5-year recurrence rate 1-2. Despite many factors that have been related to prognosis, lymph-node involvement is still considered to be the most important one based on clinical factors and survival estimates 3-6. Although recent reports have shown the possibility to detect the presence of micrometastases in previously H&E staged pN0 lymph-nodes by means of immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies against cytokeratins, there is no agreement on the clinical impact of these observations 7-14. To assess the clinical significance of lymph node micrometastases revealed by immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibodies against cytokeratin in large bowel cancer, we reviewed retrospectively all the pericolic lymph nodes of 90 patients with Stage II colorectal cancer (pT2pT3 pN0) observed from 1980 to 1990. PATIENTS AND METHODS