Clinicopathological staging of colorectal cancer: Evolution and consensus-an Australian perspective

Abstract

In 1991 this journal published the report of an international working party to the World Congress of Gastroenterology regarding the clinicopathological staging of colorectal cancer. Since that time staging has continued to evolve as further prognostic factors in colorectal cancer have been elucidated in studies of increasingly large databases in several countries. This review summarizes several of the key issues that have arisen during this evolutionary process and raises matters which still remain controversial in staging at the present time.