The incidence of coIorectaI cancer is increasing in recent years. Liver metastasis is the main cause of death in patients with coIorectaI cancer. EarIy diagnosis and treatment of Iiver metastasis is important for improving the survivaI rate of patient. Liver metastasis in coIorectaI cancer is a muIti-step progress invoIving many genes and moIecuIar aIterations,detecting the abnormaI changes wiII heIp to assess the earIy risk of Iiver metastasis. This articIe reviewed the advances in studies on assessment of Iiver metastasis in coIorectaI cancer.

Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumor(GI-NET)originates from peptide neurons and neu-roendocrine cells in gastrointestinal tract,and secrets peptide hormones,leading to carcinoid syndrome which rarely happens in clinical practice. Because of the improvement of diagnostic method and understanding of this rare disease,the morbidity is rising in recent years. The main treatments of GI-NET are surgery and compre-hensive therapy,consisting of chemotherapy and targeted therapy.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition is the phenomenon of epithelial cells transforming to mesenchymal cells under special microenvironment,and thus tumor cells obtain characters such as difficult to adhere,motility enhancement,resistant to apoptosis.In the process of embryonic growth and tumor development,epithelial cells were found to be transformed into mesenchymal cells.Many researches showed that epithelial-mesenchymal transition plays an important role during the invasion and metastasis of colorectal cancer,and its mechanism involves many kinds of signaling pathways and related molecules.

Objective To investigate the clinicopathological factors related with the lymph node ratio (LNR) in colorectal cancer patients.Methods The clinical and pathological data of 177 colorectal cancer patients who were treated by surgery in Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital from January 2011 to December 2013 were collected.The association between LNR and clinicopathological factors were evaluated by single factor analysis nsingx x2 test.Results Gender,age,tumor location,tumor size,gross type,depth of infiltration,infiltration extent around bowel wall and preoperative serum CA199 concentration were not related with LNR (P ＞0.05),but tumor histological type,tumor differentiation,preoperative serum CEA,CA125 concentration were related with LNR (P =0.001,0.004,0.004,0.025).Conclusions Tumor histological type,tumor differentiation,preoperative serum CEA,CA125 may be the important factors related with LNR in colorectal cancer.