The pathologist should search for lymph nodes in the resection specimen and the number found should be audited. In patients with colon cancer who are treated with curative intent, 12 or more nodes should normally be examined; if the median number is consistently below 12, the surgeon and the pathologist should discuss their techniques.
Patients with inadequately sampled nodes could be offered adjuvant chemotherapy.
All reporting of colon cancer specimens should contain gross description, histology type, differentiation by predominant area, margins (tumour involvement), metastatic spread, background abnormalities, staging.