Complete clinical response in rectal cancer: a turning tide
Menée sur 259 patients atteints d'un adénocarcinome du rectum et ayant reçu une chimioradiothérapie entre 2011 et 2013, cette étude évalue, du point de vue de la survie sans aggravation de la maladie, de la survie sans colostomie et de la survie globale, l'intérêt d'un suivi médical par rapport à une résection chirurgicale
The finding that patients with rectal cancer can have a complete pathological response after neoadjuvant chemoradiation led one surgeon, Angelita Habr-Gama, to consider a (perhaps now obvious) question: if no residual cancer remains, why do these patients need to undergo radical surgery?1 Somewhat mirroring Nigro and colleagues,2 who suggested a very similar approach for anal cancer, Habr-Gama realised that patients with rectal cancer who developed a complete pathological response could be identified by clinical (and later on, radiological) assessment (ie, a complete clinical response) and, therefore, could be spared from the unnecessary morbidity, mortality, and functional consequences associated with radical surgery.
The Lancet Oncology , commentaire, 2014