Clinicopathological Study of Mucinous Carcinomas of the Large Intestine

Kazuhide Iwakawa, Takeshi Kadota, Hidenori Kiyochi, Ryoichi Matsuda, Nobuaki Kobayashi

First Department of Surgery, Ehime University School of Medicine

The clinicopathological features of 29 mucinous carcinoma cases of the large intestine were compared with those of 61 cases of differentiated type adenocarcinoma. The incidence of mucinous carcinoma was relatively higher in the right colon than in the left colon and rectum. Mucinous carcinomas were more likely to invade the surrounding tissue. The mean tumor size (p<0.01), Dukes' classification (p<0.05) and lymph node involvement (p<0.05) were significantly different between mucinous carcinomas and differentiated type adenocarcinomas. The mucinous carcinomas were classified into two groups, papillotubular (PT) type and mucocellular (MC) type, according to their histological characteristics. Twenty two cases of the MC type were more common in younger patients, and it was characterized by deep invasion, lymph node metastasis and lymphatic vessel invasion. One-half of the PT type carcinomas were associated with adenomas, especially villous type adenomas. These results suggest that wide lymph node dissection and aggressive local resection for mucinous carcinomas, particularly of the MC type, are necessary, and that special attention should be paid to the histological subtype.

Key words
mucinous carcinoma of the large intestine, papillotubular type and mucocellular type, differentiated type adenocarcinoma

Reprint requests
Kazuhide Iwakawa First Department of Surgery, Ehime University School of Medicine
Shitsukawa, Onsegun, Ehime, 791-02 JAPAN

Accepted
March 2, 1994

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