Surgical Quality and Nodal Ultrastaging Is Associated With Long-Term Disease-Free Survival in Early Colorectal Cancer

This represents the first prospective report demonstrating that both surgical quality and nodal ultrastaging impacts survival in Stage II CRC. Patients with Stage II CRC having > or =12 LNs negative for micrometastases (N0i-) are likely cured by surgery alone. Both surgical and pathologic quality measures are imperative in early CRC to improve patient selection for adjuvant chemotherapy.