Colorectal cancer with venous tumor thrombosis

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is seldom accompanied by venous tumor thrombosis, and little is known about the features of venous tumor thrombosis in colorectal cancer. However, some reports show that colorectal cancer patients can develop venous tumor thrombosis and warn clinicians not to overlook this complication. In this report, we perform a review of 43 previously reported cases and investigate the characteristics of colorectal cancer accompanied by venous tumor thrombosis. The histological type of more than half of the cases was moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, which is known to be aggressive. Among 41 cases with available data on liver metastasis, eight patients had synchronous liver metastasis, and liver metastatic recurrence after surgical resection was indicated in 10 patients. This liver metastatic rate was high compared to general colorectal cancer. However, 11 of 43 patients with venous tumor thrombosis could survive for more than 2 years after the diagnosis, although five of the 11 patients had liver metastasis. A long survival can be anticipated for patients following complete tumor resection and adjuvant chemotherapy. A greater accumulation of cases will help elucidate the characteristics of colorectal cancer with venous tumor thrombosis and improve the treatment strategy.

Keywords: colorectal cancer; liver metastasis; tumor thrombosis.