Elevated plasma D-dimer levels in patients with colorectal cancer are associated with relatively advanced tumor stage and short postoperative survival after curative resection. It appears that measurement of preoperative D-dimer level would be useful in the preoperative diagnosis of tumor stage and prediction of postoperative survival.

Budding is a pathological marker suggesting high malignant potential and decreased postoperative survival in patients with well- or moderately-differentiated pT3 rectal adenocarcinoma.

Because the risk of lymph node metastasis in pT1 or pT2 well-differentiated colorectal adenocarcinomas having neither lymph node metastasis nor budding is very low, budding in combination with lymphovascular invasion seems to be a simple and inexpensive pathologic marker in predicting lymph node metastasis. Therefore, the presence or absence of budding should be examined in the routine pathologic diagnosis of pT1 or pT2 well-differentiated colorectal adenocarcinomas.