Survival after curative resection for stage I colorectal mucinous adenocarcinoma

Purpose The prognostic value of the mucinous adenocarcinoma histotype on the early stages especially for stage I colorectal cancer (CRC) is still unclear. This study determined the clinicopathologic characteristics and long-term outcome of stage I colorectal mucinous adenocarcinomas (MAC). Methods Among the total of 530 patients with stage I CRC (58 having MAC and 472 having non-MAC) who underwent radical resection, the correlation between clinicopathological factors and MAC was analyzed. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine whether mucinous histotype itself was an independent prognostic impact in stage I patients. Results MACs were observed more frequently located in the colon than rectum ( p = 0.049), more frequently displayed the deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) phenotype ( p = 0.001) and had a greater frequency of T2 stage ( p = 0.002). The rate of recurrence was 15.3% and the mortality was 9.2% among all stage I CRC patients. There was no difference in disease-free survival and overall survival between MACs and non-MACs. On multivariate analysis, older age ( p = 0.009, hazard ratio: 2.22), rectal cancer ( p = 0.008, hazard ratio: 3.21), lymphovascular invasion (LVI) ( p < 0.001, hazard ratio: 6.28), and deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) phenotypes ( p = 0.044, hazard ratio: 2.62) were independently associated to poor survival of stage I CRC. A high carcinoembryonic antigen level ( p = 0.034, hazard ratio: 1.86), rectal cancer ( p = 0.035, hazard ratio: 1.81), LVI ( p = 0.002, hazard ratio: 3.59) and dMMR phenotypes ( p = 0.009, hazard ratio: 2.85) were independently related to short disease-free survival of stage I CRC. Conclusions Compared with non-MAC, MAC patients had more T2 patients and more dMMR phenotypes in stage I CRC at presentation, but the mucinous histology is not a significant predictor of recurrence and prognosis in stage I CRC.