Pathologic Assessment of Rectal Carcinoma after Neoadjuvant Radio(chemo)therapy: Prognostic Implications

Table 1

Assessment of the quality of mesorectal excision or completeness of resection.

	Complete	Nearly complete	Incomplete
Mesorectum	Intact, smooth	Moderate bulk, irregular	Little bulk
Defects	Not deeper than 5 mm	Unexposed muscularis propria	Exposed muscularis propria
Coning	No coning	Moderate	Yes
CRM	Smooth, regular	Irregular	Irregular

CRM, circumferential resection margin.
Both the whole fresh specimen and formalin-fixed slices are examined to achieve optimal assessment.