Cancer seeding contributes to intestinal anastomotic dehiscence

Marek Stanczyk, Waldemar L Olszewski, Magdalena Gewartowska, Marek Maruszynski

Surgical wounds in cancer patients have a relatively high dehiscence rate. Although colon cancer resections are performed so as to include macroscopically non-involved tissues, some cancer cells can be present in the line of transection. The local healing process may facilitate proliferation of these localized cancer cells and the high cytokine concentration within the healing wound may also attract cancer cells from distant sites to migrate into the wound area. The growing tumor cells may then stretch the wound, hampering its contraction process.