The important question as to whether the vascular architecture of an individual tumor is tumor type specific has been controversial. We have recently shown using a simple and accurate technique for 3D-measurements in microcorrosion casts that at least experimental tumors develop a characteristic vascular network. There is strong evidence that the basic vascular architecture is determined by the tumor cells themselves. However, for human primary tumors and their metastases as well as their possible precanceroses no data are available until today.

Therefore we studied the microvascular architecture of different colorectal carcinomas and adenomas as well as the vascularity of different segments of the colon and rectum. For this, parameters defining the microvascular unit were analysed on 3D reconstructed images as recently described.Comparisons of the quantified parameters within a given segment of the colon as well as group comparisons of all segments did not reveal any significant inter-individual difference.