Preoperative treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer
Schrag D, Shi Q, Weiser MR, Gollub MJ, Saltz LB, Musher BL et al.
N Engl J Med 2023; 389: 322-334.
Some 1194 patients with stage T2 or T3 rectal cancer were randomized to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (standard care) or chemotherapy alone. Five-year disease-free survival was 80.8 per cent after chemotherapy alone compared to 78.6 per cent after standard care, P=0.005 for noninferiority. Overall survival rates were similar.
Comment: This is important as it could change standard care. Surgeons have never been keen to operate on recently irradiated tissue.
18 October 2023
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