In a nutshell
This study investigated whether chemotherapy after rectal surgery improves survival of rectal cancer patients. Researchers suggested that chemotherapy after rectal surgery is associated with improved survival.
Some background
Rectal cancer affects almost 40,000 people annually in the United States. Roughly 50% of these patients havelocally advanced disease, meaning the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. The standard treatment for these patients is chemotherapy and radiation therapy (CRT) before surgery. However, the benefits of chemotherapy after surgery are not clear.
Methods & findings
The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of chemotherapy after rectal surgery in stage 2 and stage 3 rectal cancer patients with node-positive and node-negative disease.
This study included information about 8344 patients who received CRT before surgery (4172) or who did not receive CRT before surgery (4172). Among the patients who received CRT, 2645 patients were node-negative and 1527 were node-positive. Patients who did not receive CRT before surgery, 3063 were node-negative and 1109 were node-positive.
The odds of decreased survival was 35% lower in patients with node-negative cancer treated with chemotherapy compared to those not treated. The odds of shorter survival were 2.2 times higher in node-positive patients not treated with chemotherapy compared to those treated with chemotherapy.
Other factors, such as older age, male sex, other medical conditions, and race, contributed to worse survival in these patients.
The bottom line
This study showed that the use of chemotherapy after surgery is associated with improved survival in both node-negative and node-positive rectal cancer patients.
Published By :
Annals of Surgical Oncology
Date :
Nov 18, 2016
