Operative versus Nonoperative Treatment for Stage 0 Distal Rectal Cancer Following Chemoradiation Therapy: Long-Term Results

Research Question/Objective Multimodality therapy consisting of chemoradiation followed by surgery became standard of care treatment for distal rectal adenocarcinoma by the mid-2000s. After surgical resection, 10–30% of patients were found to have a pathological complete response (ypT0N0 disease). 1 , 2 Given the known morbidity and mortality after surgery for distal rectal cancer, Dr. Habr Gama and colleagues sought to determine the outcome of patients with a complete clinical response after neoadjuvant chemoradiation, who forego surgery in exchange for a close clinical monitoring protocol. Furthermore, they evaluated how survival compared to that for patients with resected rectal cancer who are found to have…