Mucinous differentiation of rectal cancers: does it really impact oncological outcomes?

Abstract

We read with interest the paper on the response of mucinous rectal cancers to pre-operative treatment and oncological outcomes by Koeter et al(1). We would like to highlight the following points to help further research on the subject. The primary aim of the study was to analyze the differential response of mucinous and non-mucinous histology to preoperative radiation on Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MR based response assessment is mainly based on the study of post-contrast sequences and diffusion weighted imaging(2). It would have been more useful to include the review of these MR sequences to gather adequate information (like diffusion restriction) in addition to just the volumetric parameters on T2 sequences to predict the tumour response.