To investigate the clinical value of multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in the detection of extramural vascular invasion in patients with colon cancer.

A retrospective and descriptive study was conducted on the MDCT imaging and pathological data of 56 patients who had electronic colonoscopy biopsy and histologically proven primary colon cancer at the Affiliated Huai′an Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University between March 2017 and October 2019. Using pathology as the "gold standard", Kappa coefficient was used to measure the consistency between MDCT and pathology for the diagnosis of extramural vascular invasion.

MDCT correctly diagnosed 51 cases of extramural vascular invasion, with 3 false positives and 2 false negatives. There was a good consistency between MDCT and pathology for the diagnosis of extramural vascular invasion (κ=0.756, P<0.001).

Extramural vascular invasion can be mostly detected by MDCT in patients with colon cancer, which is helpful for choosing treatment options and evaluation of the prognosis of patients with colon cancer.