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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Dec 10, 2015; 6(6): 225-236
Published online Dec 10, 2015. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v6.i6.225
Published online Dec 10, 2015. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v6.i6.225
Adjuvant chemotherapy for rectal cancer: Is it needed?
Kristijonas Milinis, Faculty of Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GE, United Kingdom
Michael Thornton, Paul S Rooney, Department of Colorectal Surgery, the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool L7 8XP, United Kingdom
Amir Montazeri, Department of Oncology, the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool CH63 4JY, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Milinis K, Thornton M, Montazeri A and Rooney PS equally contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors have no conflicts of interest.
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: Paul S Rooney, MBChB, FRCS, DM, Department of Colorectal Surgery, the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Prescot Street, Merseyside, Liverpool L7 8XP, United Kingdom. paul.rooney@rlbuht.nhs.uk
Telephone: +44-151-7063426 Fax: +44-151-7063480
Received: April 27, 2015
Peer-review started: April 27, 2015
First decision: June 24, 2015
Revised: August 1, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 7, 2015
Published online: December 10, 2015
Processing time: 226 Days and 12 Hours
Peer-review started: April 27, 2015
First decision: June 24, 2015
Revised: August 1, 2015
Accepted: September 7, 2015
Article in press: September 7, 2015
Published online: December 10, 2015
Processing time: 226 Days and 12 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Adjuvant chemotherapy for rectal cancer is a contentious issue despite its widespread use. Recent randomised controlled trials have shown no benefit in survival of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients treated with preoperative chemoradiotherapy. It is becoming evident that not all patients benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy and identification of these patients should be the focus of future studies. The present review discusses the current evidence-base for adjuvant chemotherapy in rectal cancer and provides directions for future research.