Background: Extramural vascular invasion (EMVI) in patients with rectal cancer (RC) is associated with more locally advanced tumors, and independently predicts local and distant recurrence and poor overall survival.
Objetive: To determine the association between EMVI and synchronous liver metastases in patients with RC.
Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study including patients with cancer of middle and lower rectum, which were evaluated with magnetic resonance (MRI) for initial staging in the period from January 2011 to January 2012 inclusive. All patients were evaluated with MRI for EMVI and were followed for a year to detect synchronous liver metastases by imaging methods (January 2012 to January 2013 inclusive). Multivariate analysis was performed by logistic regression.
Results: We included 68 patients. Twenty had liver metastases during the observation period (29.41%), of whom 15 had signs of MRI EMVI (75%). The incidence of synchronous liver metastases had a marginally significant association with the presence of EMVI (RR 3.35, 95% CI: 1.0001-11.2187, P = 0.050).
Conclusion: The presence of MRI EVMI is a poor prognostic predictor factor of development of synchronous liver metastases in patients with RC.