Li X, et al. - Researchers investigated the effect of tumor deposits (TDs) on overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), disease-free survival (DFS) and responses to chemotherapy in advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with different lymph node (N) stages. They retrospectively studied a cohort of 1,455 stage III CRC patients diagnosed at a single institution between January 2010 and July 2016. Outcomes suggested a poor prognosis for stage III CRC patients with positive TDs. These patients displayed no DFS benefit from chemotherapy. Patients with the N1a, 1b and N2a, 2b stages, TDs showed adverse effects in terms of OS and DFS, providing evidence for the feasibility of the new TNM category method.