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Quality of Surgery

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Multidisciplinary Treatment of Colorectal Cancer

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Abstract

Pathologists closely interact with all members of the colorectal multidisciplinary team in order to improve patient outcomes. Consistent high-quality reporting is essential to communicate all relevant prognostic information so that the patient undergoes optimal management. Additional feedback on the interpretation of preoperative imaging, effectiveness of preoperative treatment and quality of surgery is now integral to the pathology report. For rectal cancer, the status of the circumferential resection margin and quality of the mesorectal dissection are already widely reported. However, evidence is accumulating for the benefit of pathological feedback on the quality of the sphincter dissection in abdominoperineal excision (APE) specimens and the mesocolic dissection for colon cancer. This chapter will address current best practice for the pathological approach to TME, APE and colon cancer specimens.

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  1. Section of Pathology and Tumour Biology, Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Nicholas P. West & Philip Quirke

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  1. Nicholas P. West
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Correspondence to Nicholas P. West .

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  1. Institute of Regional Health Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Gunnar Baatrup

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West, N.P., Quirke, P. (2015). Quality of Surgery. In: Baatrup, G. (eds) Multidisciplinary Treatment of Colorectal Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06142-9_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06142-9_22

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