Clinical implications and mechanism of histopathological growth pattern in colorectal cancer liver metastases

Table 2 Characteristics of desmoplastic histopathological growth pattern and replacement histopathological growth pattern in colorectal cancer liver metastasis

Aspects	dHGP	rHGP
Morphology	Sharp desmoplastic rim separating tumor cells from adjacent liver	Ill-defined border; Tumor cells replace normal hepatocytes along with the architecture of liver plate
Invasion pattern	Expanding and mild	Infiltrative and aggressive
Immune phenotype	Abundant	Desert
Vascularization	Angiogenesis	Non-angiogenesis (vessel co-option)
Organ-specific	No, widely appears in brain, lung and liver	Yes, only appears in liver
Therapy response	Superior response	Inferior response and drug resistance
Clinical outcome	Longer OS, DFS and PFS	Poorer survival and high recurrence

dHGP: Desmoplastic histopathological growth pattern; rHGP: Replacement histopathological growth pattern; OS: Overall survival; DFS: Disease-free survival; PFS: Progression-free survival.