Approach to Rectal Cancer Surgery

Rectal cancer is a distinct subset of colorectal cancer where specialized disease-specific management of the primary tumor is required. There have been significant developments in rectal cancer surgery at all stages of disease in particular the introduction of local excision strategies for preinvasive and early cancers, standardized total mesorectal excision for resectable cancers incorporating preoperative short- or long-course chemoradiation to the multimodality sequencing of treatment. Laparoscopic surgery is also increasingly being adopted as the standard rectal cancer surgery approach following expertise of colorectal surgeons in minimally invasive surgery gained from laparoscopic colon resections. In locally advanced and metastatic disease, combining chemoradiation with radical surgery may achieve total eradication of disease and disease control in the pelvis. Evidence for resection of metastases to the liver and lung have been extensively reported in the literature. The role of cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for peritoneal metastases is showing promise in achieving locoregional control of peritoneal dissemination. This paper summarizes the recent developments in approaches to rectal cancer surgery at all these time points of the disease natural history

Evaluation of Best Supportive Care and Systemic Chemotherapy as Treatment Stratified according to the retrospective Peritoneal Surface Disease Severity Score (PSDSS) for Peritoneal Carcinomatosis of Colorectal Origin

Background: We evaluate the long-term survival of patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) treated with systemic chemotherapy regimens, and the impact of the of the retrospective peritoneal disease severity score (PSDSS) on outcomes. Methods: One hundred sixty-seven consecutive patients treated with PC from colorectal cancer between years 1987-2006 were identified from a prospective institutional database. These patients either received no chemotherapy, 5-FU/Leucovorin or Oxaliplatin/Irinotecan-based chemotherapy. Stratification was made according to the retrospective PSDSS that classifies PC patients based on clinically relevant factors. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and comparison with the log-rank test. Results: Median survival was 5 months (95% CI, 3-7 months) for patients who had no chemotherapy, 11 months (95% CI, 6-9 months) for patients treated with 5 FU/LV, and 12 months (95% CI, 4-20 months) for patients treated with Oxaliplatin/Irinotecan-based chemotherapy. Survival differed between patients treated with chemotherapy compared to those patients who did not receive chemotherapy (p = 0.026). PSDSS staging was identified as an independent predictor for survival on multivariate analysis [RR 2.8 (95%CI 1.5-5.4); p < 0.001]. Conclusion: A trend towards improved outcomes is demonstrated from treatment of patients with PC from colorectal cancer using modern systemic chemotherapy. The PSDSS appears to be a useful tool in patient selection and prognostication in PC of colorectal origin

Clinicopathologic factors associated with HER2-positive gastric cancer and its impact on survival outcomes : a systematic review

With the availability of a therapeutic target and an effective agent in trastuzumab, a systematic examination of the literature to investigate the role of human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) as a prognostic factor for survival and its association with clinicopathologic markers may improve treatment. An electronic search of the MEDLINE and PubMed databases (January 1990 to January 2011) was undertaken to identify translational studies that correlated HER2 with clinicopathologic markers and/or survival outcome. This review included 49 studies totaling 11,337 patients. Forty-four percent of patients had Stage I/II, and 56% had Stage III/IV disease. Immunohistochemistry was most commonly used to assess HER2 expression, identifying a median rate of 18% (range, 4–53%) of gastric cancer demonstrating HER2 overexpression. In patients with and without HER2 overexpression, the median 3-year disease-free survival rate was 58% (range, 50–88%) and 86% (range, 62–97%), respectively. Of the 35 studies reporting the impact of HER2 overexpression on survival, 20 studies (57%) reported no difference in overall survival, two studies (6%) reported significantly longer overall survival in patients with HER2 overexpression and 13 studies (37%) reported significantly poorer overall survival in patients with HER2 overexpression. The median overall survival and 5-year survival rate was 21 (range, 10–57) months and 42%, and 33 (range, 13–80) months and 52% in patients with and without HER2 overexpression, respectively. HER2 overexpression appears to be associated with poorer survival and with intestinal-type gastric cancer in this group of patients for whom majority undergone curative gastrectomy