Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and population based time trend studies have shown a rising trend in incidence of CRC in India. As the literature on the issue in India is limited, we undertook the study with the objective of evaluating the histopathological features of CRC and correlating these with certain clinicopathological variables. Material and Method: All the cases of colectomy and abdominoperineal resection specimen, received in the Pathology Department, over a period of three years (between July 2012 and July 2015) were evaluated. Statistical Analysis: Continuous data and qualitative variables were summarised using descriptive statistics and frequency respectively. Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the tumour grade with other clinicopathological variables. Results: The study included 51 cases of CRC with male: female ratio of 2.2:1. The mean patient age was 52.3± 13.2 years, with most of the cases occurring in the 5th decade (33.3%). Majority of the cases were located in the rectum (39.2%) and the commonest gross tumour morphology was ulceroinfiltrative (45.1%). Conventional adenocarcinoma (ACa- NOS) was the commonest histologic type (74.5%) followed by mucinous adenocarcinoma (MACa) (19.6%) and signet ring cell carcinoma (SCa) (5.9%). The most frequent grade observed was G2 (45.1%). Majority of the patients were in stage III (52.9%). Conclusions: Our age and sex distribution is comparable, to a larger extent, with other related nationwide studies. As many previous studies worldwide have consistently demonstrated, we found positive correlation between tumour grade and nodal metastasis, extent of local tumour spread and TNM stage.

Keywords: Adenocarcinoma; Colorectal Carcinoma; Mucinous Adenocarcinoma; Tumour Grade; TNM Stage.