Author response to comment on ‘significance of extranodal tumour deposits in colorectal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis’

We thank Chen et  al. for their comments on our meta-analysis [1], which we have read with interest. We strongly agree that there are numerous other prognostic factors which are currently ignored by the tumour-node-metastasis (TNM) system [2] and warrant further attention. The differentiation between lymph node met astases (LNMs) with extranodal extension (ENE) and extranodal tumour deposits (ENTDs) is extremely problematic when analysing retrospective data as this is often based on earlier TNM editions which used imprecise size or contour criteria to distinguish between LNM (with or without ENE) and ENTD [3,4 ].
Source: European Journal of Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research