Applications of New Radiological Scores: the Node-rads in Colon Cancer Staging

Overview

Journal Radiol Med

Specialty Radiology

Date 2023 Sep 13

PMID 37704777

Authors

Nicola Maggialetti

Chiara Noemi Greco

Nicola Maria Lucarelli

Chiara Morelli

Valentina Cianci

Sara Sasso

Dino Rubini

Arnaldo Scardapane

Amato Antonio Stabile Ianora

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose: The study focuses on the evaluation of the new Node Reporting and Data System 1.0 (Node-rads) scoring accuracy in the assessment of metastatic lymph nodes (LN) in patients with colon carcinoma.

Material And Methods: From April 2021 to May 2022, retrospective chart reviews were performed on 67 preoperative CT (Computed Tomography) of patients undergoing excisional surgery for colon cancer at the Polyclinic of Bari, Italy. Primary endpoints were to assess lymph node size and configuration to express the likelihood of a metastatic site adopting the Node-rads score system, whose categories of risk are defined from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). The nodal postsurgical histological evaluation was the gold standard. The relationship between Node-rads score, LN size, configuration criteria (texture, border and shape) and the presence of histological metastases was statistically evaluated.

Results: All surgical specimens examined had correlation with Node-rads score. They were significantly more likely to present nodes micrometastasis those patients with (a) spherical LN shape (82.8%), (b) with lymph node necrosis (100%), (c) irregular borders (87%) and (d) the LN short axis more than 10 mm (61.9%).

Conclusions: Our experience highlights how the Node-rads system proposes an intuitive and effective definition of criteria to standardize the lymph node radiological reports in colon cancer disease. Further studies are needed to streamline the classification of the nodal and peripheral LN in all the oncological imaging.

Citing Articles

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PMID: 39948223 DOI: 10.1007/s00261-025-04843-w.

Diagnostic accuracy of node-RADS for the detection of lymph node invasion: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Lu F, Zhao Y, Wang Z, Feng N Eur Radiol. 2025; .

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Node Reporting and Data System 1.0 (Node-RADS) for the Assessment of Oncological Patients' Lymph Nodes in Clinical Imaging.

Parillo M, Cosimo Quattrocchi C J Clin Med. 2025; 14(1.

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Diagnostic Accuracy and Reliability of CT-based Node-RADS for Esophageal Cancer.

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Validation of the Node Reporting and Data System (Node-RADS) for standardized CT evaluation of regional lymph nodes in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Fang Y, Chen M, Zheng X, Yao Y, Huang K, Chen S Eur Radiol. 2024; .

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