Abridged Abstracts From the Medical Literature

Abstract

or’s Comments: This is the highly anticipated follow up to Dr Fleshman’s 2015 randomized trial. Over the past 3 years, the safety of laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer has been heavily debated. Although this study does not bring closure to the debate, it does confirm that laparoscopic surgery can provide excellent long-term outcomes in experienced hands. Additionally, this study highlights the increased complexity of distal tumors, with higher rates of positive margins and tumor perforation, so the surgeon should always be particularly cautious when treating this subgroup. The authors make the important point that this trial was not powered for the secondary end point, but the provided data remain the highest quality that we have to date on this topic. Regardless of approach, the ability to achieve negative circumferential radial margins and DMs is paramount, and surgeons should do this in whichever way possible, including open surgery, laparoscopic, robotic, and transanal approaches.—Section Editor, Sean J. Langenfeld, M.D. Muscle radiodensity and mortality in patients with colorectal cancer Kroenke CH, Prado CM, Meyerhardt JA, et al. Cancer. 2018;124:3008–3015. PUBMED LINK: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/