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Recent Update on the Role of Radiation Therapy in Colorectal Cancer

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Surgical Treatment of Colorectal Cancer
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Abstract

In recent decades, the improvements in surgical techniques, imaging modalities, chemotherapy regimens, and radiotherapy have resulted in survival improvement. In the current guideline, preoperative long-course chemoradiotherapy or short-course radiotherapy is the standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer. On the other hand, various treatment schemes have been conducted for further improvement of clinical outcomes for patients with stage II or III rectal cancer. Novel clinical trials have concept for more effective systemic treatments, risk-adapted radiotherapy, and the increased awareness of quality of life. The induction chemotherapy followed by preoperative chemoradiotherapy or consolidation chemotherapy after preoperative chemoradiotherapy has been conducted to investigate a reducing systemic metastasis. The omission of radiotherapy has been addressed as a risk-adaptation concept for selected patients with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy as well as low-risk local recurrence. In terms of quality of life, minimal or omitted surgery following complete response to preoperative chemoradiotherapy has been challenged. Here, the current status for novel multimodal approaches for rectal cancer is discussed.

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Koom, W.S. (2018). Recent Update on the Role of Radiation Therapy in Colorectal Cancer. In: Kim, N., Sugihara, K., Liang, JT. (eds) Surgical Treatment of Colorectal Cancer. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5143-2_31

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