The detection and evaluation of locally recurrent rectal cancer with rectal endosonography

Abstract

Eighty-five patients treated surgically for rectal cancer have been followed up by conventional clinical examination, sigmoidoscopy, and endosonography. Local recurrence was diagnosed in 22 patients. Nineteen of these had either sigmoidoscopic or digital evidence of recurrence and three were diagnosed solely by endosonography. In all cases endosonography gave additional information on which to base management decisions. Routine use of endosonography should allow the detection of early recurrence in a larger number of patients.

Detection of recurrent and metastatic colorectal cancer: Comparison of positron emission tomography and computed tomography

“…Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has not been shown to be superior to CT in differentiating tumor from scar tissue, although use of an endorectal coil may improve accuracy (31,32). Transrectal or transvaginal ultrasonography shows great promise in the detection of tumor recurrence, provided a baseline reading is taken about 2 to 3 months after primary surgery to establish the position of organs such as the uterus and loops of bowel, which may fall to either side of the neorectum and may otherwise be mistaken for recurrent pelvic rumor (33). However, this modality is highly operator dependent, and, like CT, is limited to detection of lymph node metastases based on the size of the nodes.…”

Radiotherapy in Addition to Radical Surgery in Rectal Cancer

“…With high sensitivity, Dukes' A lesions can now be identified with intraluminal ultrasonography before surgery (42) and thus be spared radiotherapy. This requires, however, that surgery is properly performed so that local failures are kept at a very low level.…”

Locally recurrent rectal cancer: Role of composite resection of extensive pelvic tumors with strategies for minimizing risk of recurrence

“…Newer modalities such as endorectal ultrasound and radio-immunoscanning have been suggested as better means of identifying pelvic recurrence, but none has yet achieved the sensitivity or specificity of the computed tomography (CT) scan [42,43]. Lately positron emission tomography has shown promise in this area [44], but it continues to be expensive and not widely available.…”