In a nutshell
This study compared long-term survival outcomes between two different surgical techniques for rectal cancer.
Some background
Surgery is the main treatment for rectal cancer. Open surgery is the original surgical technique and involves making a large incision to remove the tumor. Laparoscopic surgery is a newer technique involving a smaller incision. Laparoscopic surgery reduces blood loss, pain and the length of hospital stay for patients compared to open surgery. Although these short term benefits are often reported, very few trials have compared laparoscopic and open surgery in terms of long-term survival.
Two different measures can be used to report survival outcomes: overall survival and cancer-specific survival. Overall survival refers to the percentage of patients who have not died from any cause. Cancer-specific survival refers to the percentage of patients who have not died from rectal cancer.
Methods & findings
This study examined data from 3 trials that compared laparoscopic and open surgery for rectal cancer. 136 patients had laparoscopic surgery and 142 patients had open surgery.
10 years after surgery there was no significant difference in the percentage of patients with recurrence of the tumor near the original site (locoregional recurrence), cancer-specific survival or overall survival between the two groups.
5.5% of patients who had laparoscopic surgery had locoregional recurrence compared to 9.3% who had open surgery. 17.5% of patients who had laparoscopic surgery died as a result of rectal cancer compared to 22.4% of patients who had open surgery. The overall survival rate was 63% for patients who had laparoscopic surgery compared to 61.1% of patients who had open surgery.
The bottom line
The authors concluded that laparoscopic surgery is a safe approach for long-term treatment of rectal cancer.
Published By :
Annals of Surgery
Date :
Jan 01, 2014
