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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Dec 27, 2021; 13(12): 1567-1583
Published online Dec 27, 2021. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v13.i12.1567
Mucinous adenocarcinoma: A unique clinicopathological subtype in colorectal cancer
An Huang, Yong Yang, Jing-Yi Shi, Yu-Kun Li, Jing-Xuan Xu, Yu Cheng, Jin Gu
An Huang, Yong Yang, Jing-Yi Shi, Yu-Kun Li, Jing-Xuan Xu, Yu Cheng, Jin Gu, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery III, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing 100142, China
Jin Gu, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Science, Peking University International Cancer Center, Beijing 100142, China
Jin Gu, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing 100144, China
Author contributions: Gu J contributed to conceptualization; Huang A, Li YK and Xu JX contributed to literature search and data analysis; Huang A wrote original draft preparation; Yang Y, Shi JY, Cheng Y reviewed and edited manuscript; Gu J supervised manuscript.
Supported by the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, Clinical Application and Development of Capital Characteristic, No. Z171100001017087.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jin Gu, FACS, FASCRS, MD, Professor, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery III, Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, No. 52 Fucheng Rd, Haidian District, Beijing 100142, China. zlguj@bjmu.edu.cn
Received: May 29, 2021
Peer-review started: May 29, 2021
First decision: June 23, 2021
Revised: July 2, 2021
Accepted: August 30, 2021
Article in press: August 30, 2021
Published online: December 27, 2021
Core Tip

Core tip: Colorectal mucinous adenocarcinoma (MAC) is a unique clinicopathological subtype in colorectal cancer. MAC exhibits a higher frequency of microsatellite instability, higher CpG island methylator phenotype of high degree, higher frequency of BRAF and KRAS gene mutations, and lower frequency of TP53 mutations. One of the most important features of MAC is the aberrant expression of a large number of mucins, including MUC1, MUC2 and MUC5AC. We discuss the epidemiology, clinicopathological characteristics, molecular features, methods of diagnosis, and treatments of MAC in order to provide references for further fundamental and clinical research.