In recent years, the morbidity and mortality of colorectal cancer have been increasing, and the comprehensive treatment strategy based on surgery is the main treatment mode of colorectal cancer. The number of lymph nodes detected after colorectal cancer surgery is a necessary guarantee and prerequisite for evaluating the quality of surgery and achieving accurate tumor staging, and it also has important clinical significance for patients' follow-up treatment decisions. A large number of studies have shown that the number of lymph nodes detected is affected by various factors such as the overall treatment strategy, surgical resection, pathological detection techniques, individual differences in patients, and tumor heterogeneity. This has also led to increasing controversy over the requirement of "at least 12 lymph nodes to be harvested" in clinical guidelines. Based on this situation, the research on individualized detection of lymph nodes has become a hot topic in this field, which is also an important means and development trend that is expected to ensure the scientificity of lymph node detection. At present, cutting-edge technologies such as multi-omics data application and artificial intelligence analysis have also been gradually applied to the exploration of individualized detection of lymph nodes, and certain clinical results have been achieved, but most of the research results have yet to be transformed. Therefore, we also look forward to more high-quality clinical studies in the future to explore the individualized detection of lymph nodes, so as to better improve clinical staging, guide treatment and determine prognosis.