Improving lymph node detection in colon cancer in community hospitals and their pathology department in southern Netherlands

AimThe aim was to investigate whether a set of measures directed at increasing lymph node (LN) detection among colon cancer patients led to clinically relevant changes in LN detection rate.MethodsData of all patients with curative colon cancer (pTany Nany M0) diagnosed in 1999–2007 whose resection specimens were evaluated by the Institute for Pathology and Medical Microbiology in Eindhoven (n = 1501) were included. Feedback to specialists, increased fixation time, and ex-vivo injection of the specimen with Patent blue V dye were used to increase LN detection rate. Trends in the proportion of patients with insufficient LNs examined were investigated; moreover, the Patent blue-stained patients (n = 86) were compared with a group of unstained patients (n = 84). Based on the decrease in the proportion of high-risk node-negative patients, a calculation of chemotherapy-related costs saved was made.ResultsThe proportion of patients with <12 LNs examined decreased from 87% in 1999 to 48% in 2007 (ptrend < 0.0001). In the stained group this was 37%, versus 56% for the unstained group (p = 0.010). In 1999, 79% of stage II patients were high-risk compared to 55% in 2007, which translates to a saving of almost 1,000,000 euro based on 92 stage II patients diagnosed in 2007.ConclusionA diverse set of measures increased the number of examined lymph nodes among patients with colon cancer. Large savings can be made due to the reduced proportion of high-risk node-negative patients who would otherwise have received adjuvant chemotherapy.