Abstract
Adjuvant therapy is add-on treatment after microscopic radical resection (R0 resection) with the aim to increase the chance for cure. In the adjuvant situation, patients with colon and rectal cancer are treated differently. Pre- and postoperative (chemo)radiation for rectal cancer is discussed in Chap. 18. The scientific support for adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with rectal cancer [1, 2] is much less than in colon cancer. After preoperative (chemo)radiotherapy and surgery for patients with rectal cancer, adjuvant fluorouracil-based chemotherapy did not improve overall survival, disease-free survival, or distant recurrences [1, 2]. However, patients with a tumour 10–15 cm from the anal verge and patients who did not receive preoperative (chemo)radiotherapy may benefit from adjuvant therapy and may be treated as a patient with colon cancer. However, in the metastatic situation, patients with colon and rectal cancer are treated as one group.
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Qvortrup, C., Pfeiffer, P. (2021). Adjuvant Therapy in Patients with Colorectal Cancer. In: Baatrup, G. (eds) Multidisciplinary Treatment of Colorectal Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58846-5_19
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