Core Concepts
Standard preoperative chemoradiation followed by surgery is more effective than primary surgery and adjuvant chemoradiation in treating locally advanced rectal cancer.
Stats
"After a median follow-up of 34.6 months, there were six (4.4%) local recurrences in the intervention group and none in the control group."
"In the intention-to-treat population, the 3-year disease-free survival rate was 81.8% in the intervention group vs 85.4% in the control group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.76)."
"In the per protocol dataset, the 3-year disease-free survival rate was 81.1% in the primary surgery group vs 86.6% in the preoperative chemoradiation group — a difference of −5.4% (HR, 2.02)."
Quotes
"This trial was shut down earlier due to an excessive number of [disease-free survival] and local recurrence events observed in the interventional group of primary surgery."
"Primary surgery is an inferior strategy, compared to preoperative [chemoradiation] followed by surgery, and cannot be recommended for [locally advanced rectal cancer] patients in clinical practice."