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Radiation before total mesorectal excision improved recurrence in patients with rectal cancer
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52nd ASTRO Annual Meeting
Patients with rectal cancer who received 1 week of radiation therapy before surgery had a 50% reduced chance that their cancer would return after 10 years. Corrie Marijnen, MD, presented results at a press conference in advance of the 52nd ASTRO Annual Meeting.
Because local recurrence is a major problem in the treatment of rectal cancer, researchers conducted a trial to investigate the value of radiotherapy combined with total mesorectal excision to control local recurrence among these patients.
Researchers enrolled 1,861 patients with rectal cancer who were eligible for total mesorectal excision surgery and whose disease had spread outside of its original location but not to other parts of the body. Patients were randomly assigned to short-term radiation before surgery or surgery alone.
Patients who underwent radiation before surgery had a 6% reduction in their chances of local recurrence after 10 years of treatment vs. patients who did not have radiation (11%).
“We believe that this short course of radiation will open a new window of opportunities in the treatment of rectal cancer,” Marijnen, radiation oncologist at the Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands, said in a press release.
“Our findings suggest that tumors in the middle rectum and stage III rectal cancer patients will most greatly benefit from receiving radiation before surgery,” Marijnen said during the press conference.
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