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Surgery for Rectal Cancer—What is on the Horizon?

  • Gastrointestinal Cancers (B Czito, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

The management of rectal cancer has improved considerably in recent decades. Surgery remains the cornerstone of the treatment. However, the role of preoperative imaging has made it possible to optimize the treatment plan in rectal patients. Neoadjuvant treatment may be indicated in efforts to sterilize possible tumor deposits outside the surgical field, or may be used to downsize and downstage the tumor itself. The optimal sequence of treatment modalities can be determined by a multidisciplinary team, who not only use pretreatment imaging, but also review pathologic results after surgery. The pathologist plays a pivotal role in providing feedback about the success of surgery, i.e., the distance between the tumor and the circumferential resection margin, the quality of surgery, and the effect of neoadjuvant treatment. Registry and auditing of all treatment variables can further improve outcomes. In this century, rectal cancer treatment has become a team effort.

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Acknowledgments

Thomas A. Vermeer and Ricardo G. Orsini equally contributed to this manuscript.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of Interest

Thomas A. Vermeer, Ricardo G. Orsini, and Harm J.T. Rutten declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Catharina Hospital Eindhoven, Michelangelolaan 2, 5623, EJ Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Thomas A. Vermeer, Ricardo G. Orsini & Harm J. T. Rutten

  2. Department Surgery, Catharina Hospital, Michelangelolaan 2, 5623, EJ Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Harm J. T. Rutten

  3. Department of Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Harm J. T. Rutten

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  1. Thomas A. Vermeer
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  2. Ricardo G. Orsini
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  3. Harm J. T. Rutten
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Correspondence to Harm J. T. Rutten.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Gastrointestinal Cancers

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Vermeer, T.A., Orsini, R.G. & Rutten, H.J.T. Surgery for Rectal Cancer—What is on the Horizon?. Curr Oncol Rep 16, 372 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-013-0372-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-013-0372-y

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