The EGFR plays an important role in tumorigenesis and tumor progression of colorectal cancer, and leads to the activation of intracellular signaling pathways. The use of anti-EGFR-targeted therapy has increased for patients with colorectal cancer, but patients with EGFR mutations will be resistant to anti-EGFR-targeted therapy. The identification of gene mutations is critical in cancer treatment; therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the incidences of EGFR mutations in colorectal cancer patients in Korea.

We reviewed 58 colorectal cancer patients who underwent operations between 2003 and 2006, retrospectively. We analyzed their EGFR mutations in 4 loci by DNA sequencing. In addition, we analyzed the correlation between the presence of EGFR mutation and patients' clinicopathologic features.

Of the 58 patients, 35 patients were male and 23 were female. Their mean age was 63.28±11.18 years. Two patients (3.45%) were diagnosed as stage Tis, 7 patients (12.07%) had stage I, 24 patients (41.38%) had stage II, 20 patients (34.48%) had stage III, and 5 patients (8.62%) had stage IV. As a result of mutational analysis, EGFR mutations on exon 20 were detected in 13 patients (22.41%, G→A transitions). EGFR mutations on exon 18, 19 and 21 were not detected. EGFR mutation increased in the earlier stage and the absence of lymph node metastasis (P=0.028).

The incidence of EGFR mutation in Korean colorectal cancer patients is 22.41%. In addition, EGFR mutation significantly increased in the earlier stage and the absence of lymph node metastasis.

Hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery had both technical advantages of open surgery and better postoperative short-term follow-up results of laparoscopic surgery. We compared open colectomy, laparoscopic colectomy and hand-assisted laparoscopic colectomy, and tried to find the most effective operative modality.

90 patients, who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer and underwent colectomy in our institution, were categorized as 3 groups of open colectomy (OC) group, laparoscopic colectomy (LC) group and hand-assisted laparoscopic colectomy (HALC) group by the surgical modality.

In this study, ratio of male and female was 57 : 37, and mean age was 64.1 years old. LC group and HALC group showed longer operation time, shorter hospital stay after operation, lesser pain and earlier removal of closed drainage catheter than OC group. Amount of bleeding during operation, frequency of transfusion and incidence of complication showed no significant difference. In permanent pathologic results, the number of harvested lymph nodes had significant difference between OC group and other groups (P=0.030), but it was probably caused by the bias of the different distribution of the stages in each group. Overall 14 of the cases resulted in complications while there was no mortality.

Laparoscopic colectomy and hand-assisted laparoscopic colectomy showed better short-term follow-up results rather than open colectomy. And hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery could provide tactile sensation to operator, which lacked in laparoscopic surgery. Hand-assisted laparoscopic colectomy could be an alternative surgical option for colorectal cancer with these advantages.