Assessment of the inferior mesenteric vein diameter as a surrogate marker to evaluate response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced rectal adenocarcinoma

Reply to Akingboye et al.

“…They raise an interesting point regarding correlation of IMV diameter of whole-mount specimens with and without tumours, to validate the hypothesis [1]. Imaging correlation to histopathological specimens is a tried and tested method to correlate rectal cancer staging and subsequent tumour regression grade after neoadjuvant radiotherapy [3,4]; however, we have some apprehensions with the suggestion in this case.…”

“…Dear Editor, There is little debate that the lymph node yield is an important marker of quality and prognosis in colon cancer, that procuring a minimum of 12 is an acceptable standard of care and that decreased survival is associated with < 12 nodes being obtained [1]. The value of obtaining more than 12 nodes or optimal absolute node is contentious.…”