PMC:6736480 / 9989-10879 JSONTXT

{"project":"2_test","denotations":[{"id":"31464897-11859207-68392313","span":{"begin":139,"end":141},"obj":"11859207"}],"text":"2.5 Histopathologic assessment\nThe surgical specimens were prepared and dissected according to the protocol described by Nagtegaal et al.[20] The resection surface of the mesorectum and the specimen was fixed in formalin for a minimum of 48 hours. Dissection consisted of serial 5- to 10-mm slicing of the whole tumor and the surrounding mesorectum in the transverse plane. Specimens were embedded in paraffin for histologic examination and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. For all tumors, the shortest distance from the outermost part of the tumor to the circumferential resection margin (CRM) was measured histologically. All tumors were staged according to the 7th American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM classification. At pathologic examination, the response was considered to be major for tumors classified ypT1 or ypT2, and complete (ypT0) when no viable tumor was present."}