Oncological and prognostic impact of lymphovascular invasion in Colorectal Cancer patients

Objectives: Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is correlated with unfavorable prognoses in several types of cancers. We aimed to identify the informative features associated with LVI and to determine its prognostic value in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 1,474 CRC patients admitted in Wuhan Union Hospital between 2013 and 2017 as the development cohort and 549 CRC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database as the validation cohort. Logistical and Cox regression analyses were conducted to determine the oncological and prognostic significance of LVI in CRC patients. A survival nomogram based on LVI status was established using the Wuhan Union cohort and validated using TCGA cohort. Results: The LVI detection rates were 21.64% in the Wuhan Union cohort and 35.15% in TCGA cohort. LVI was closely correlated with advanced T stage, N stage, and TNM stage. LVI positivity was an independent biomarker for unfavorable overall survival (hazard ratio [HR]=2.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.70-2.96, P<0.0001) and worse disease-free survival (HR=2.34, 95% CI=1.76-3.12, P<0.0001) in CRC patients. The survival nomogram incorporating LVI exhibited good predictive performance and reliability in the Wuhan Union cohort and TCGA cohort. Conclusion: LVI is a significant indicator of advanced stage and is remarkably correlated with worse prognosis in CRC patients. The survival nomogram incorporating LVI may assist clinicians to better strategize the therapeutic options for patients with CRC.