Couch DG, Hemingway DM. Complete radiotherapy response in rectal cancer: A review of the evidence. World J Gastroenterol 2016; 22(2): 467-470 [PMID: 26811600 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i2.467]
Corresponding Author of This Article
David M Hemingway, MB, ChB, FRCS, Consultant Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Leicester Royal Infirmary, LE12 8TZ Leicester, United Kingdom. dhemingway_1@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2016; 22(2): 467-470 Published online Jan 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i2.467
Complete radiotherapy response in rectal cancer: A review of the evidence
Daniel G Couch, David M Hemingway
Daniel G Couch, David M Hemingway, Department of Surgery, Leicester Royal Infirmary, LE12 8TZ Leicester, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Couch DG performed research analysed data and wrote the paper; Hemingway DH analysed data and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: David M Hemingway, MB, ChB, FRCS, Consultant Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Leicester Royal Infirmary, LE12 8TZ Leicester, United Kingdom. dhemingway_1@hotmail.com
Telephone: +44-300-3031573
Received: April 22, 2015 Peer-review started: April 23, 2015 First decision: July 20, 2015 Revised: August 13, 2015 Accepted: October 23, 2015 Article in press: October 26, 2015 Published online: January 14, 2016 Processing time: 259 Days and 0.6 Hours
Abstract
Complete response to chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer is becoming a common clinical entity. Techniques to diagnose complete response and how to survey these patients without operative intervention are still unclear. We review the most recent evidence. Barriers to firm conclusions regarding this are heterogeneity of diagnostic definitions, differing surveillance protocols, and a lack of randomised studies.
Core tip: The management of rectal cancer has changed considerably over the last 15 years. Here we summarise the need for consensus on the definition of complete response of rectal cancer to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy prior to surgery, the problems associated with with heterogenous treatment programs and the need for randomised evidence.
