The Effect of Circumferential Tumor Location in Clinical Outcomes of Rectal Cancer Patients Treated With Total Mesorectal Excision

Abstract

Tumor stage is the main criterion to estimate prognosis in rectal cancer patients. The position of the tumor within the circumference of the rectum may provide valuable clinical information. Anterior tumors tend to be more advanced and, at least in male patients, has a higher risk of recurrence and death than tumors in other locations.

Postoperative Radiotherapy for Stage IIIA Rectal Cancer: Is It Justified?

“…Studies have suggested multiple factors to be associated with local recurrence and overall prognosis in rectal cancer patients. [26][27][28][29] The current study focused on a narrow range of T and N stage. Within this range, T stage or number of involved lymph nodes did not appear to influence recurrence rates.…”

Prognostic Heterogeneity of Endosonographic T3 Rectal Cancer

“…22 Contrary to other studies, however, it was found that tumor perimeter, number of quadrants involved, or anterior tumors had no prognostic impact on local recurrence or overall survival. 22,23 Current evidence supports the need to subclassify Stage III of the TNM classification. 24 T3 tumors represent over 60 percent of rectal tumors.…”

Role of Total Mesorectal Excision and of Circumferential Resection Margin in Local Recurrence and Survival of Patients with Rectal Carcinoma

“…The same study showed that anteriorly placed tumors tend to be more advanced and male patients with an anteriorly placed tumor had a higher risk of recurrence than with tumors in another location. The authors consider that the predilection of gender was a result of different surgical treatment [16] . TME has become the surgical treatment of choice for rectal cancer and now there is an accumulation of evidence indicating that surgeons who have adopted the principles of TME can consistently achieve local recurrence rates of 3-10% and an overall survival rate of up to 80% [1, 2, 5-7, 13, 17-20] .…”