Putative inter-relationship between tumor molecular changes, host immune response, regional lymph nodes, disease stage and prognosis in colorectal cancer. Tumor molecular changes are associated with both the host immune response and with patient prognosis.,, The host immune response is associated with early-stage disease and an increased number of lymph nodes detected in resection specimens. Immune reaction may promote proliferation of lymphocytes and enlargement of regional lymph nodes, potentially facilitating lymph-node dissection in gross pathology examination and increasing in the number of recovered lymph nodes. The lymph-node count is associated with good prognosis, independent of the host immune response, tumor stage and tumor molecular variables. Thus, a comprehensive assessment of host immune response, disease staging, node count, and tumor molecular variables is necessary to evaluate the clinical utility of host immune response evaluation.