A Clinicopathological Study of Mucous Nodule Referred to as Mucinous Component (MUC) in Colorectal Submucosal Invasive Carcinomas

We investigated the significance of mucous nodule, termed mucinous component (“MUC”), ahead of invasion of submucosal invasive carcinoma of the colon and rectum. Chiefly, we studied the correlation between adverse pathological prognostic factors and stainability of “MUC” for mucosubstances and tumor-associated glycoconjugates. As a result of this study, we concluded that “MUC” in colorectal submucosal invasive carcinoma would be one of the important adverse prognostic factors because submucosal invasive carcinoma with “MUC” was generally accompanied by risk factors for metastasis and strong stainability of CEA and UEA-1 particularly in “MUC” concomitant with cancer cells showing a high grade atypia.