Prognostic Impact of Perineural Invasion in Rectal Cancer After Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy

Abstract

PNI is a meaningful prognostic factor for rectal cancer patients treated with nCRT, especially when <8 lymph nodes are harvested. The lack of influence of nCRT on the PNI incidence suggests that residual tumor cells with PNI are more radioresistant or biologically aggressive than those without.