Influence of mucinous components on survival in colorectal adenocarcinomas: a multivariate analysis.

Of 534 resected colorectal adenocarcinomas, 165 (31%) contained some mucinous components; these represented the main part of the tumour in 67 (13%). Of the mucin containing tumours, 63 (38%) were in the right colon compared with 50 (13%) of the non-mucinous ones (p less than 0.001). Patients with predominantly mucinous tumours were significantly older than those with non-mucinous tumours, and they tended to present with tumours at a more advanced stage. A multivariate analysis did not show any significant independent prognostic influence of the mucinous component except when this had a predominantly signet ring cell pattern.