Even after successful surgery to remove rectal cancer, pelvic recurrences can happen. Surgery to remove the cancer offers a possibility of cure, but also has risks.
Surgical oncologists at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia retrospectively reviewed surgeries to remove pelvic recurrences after rectal cancer surgery from 1988 through 2003 where the goal was curing the cancer.
Studying outcomes for 90 patients, they found
- 4 (4.4%) died during surgery
- 53 percent had surgical complications
- 5-year survival rate was 40%
- 51 of 86 patients had another recurrence: 15 locally, 16 to distant organs, and 20 both locally and distant
Carcinoembryonic antigen level (CEA) before surgery and clear surgical margins helped predict successful treatment.
Writing in the Annals of Surgical Oncology, Leonard B. Henry, MD, concluded,
The resection of pelvic recurrences after colorectal surgery for cancer can be performed with low mortality and good long-term outcome; however, morbidity from such procedures is high. Low preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen and negative margin of resection predict improved survival.
SOURCE: Henry et. al. Annals of Surgical Oncology, Volume 14, Issue 7, July 2007.
Leave a Reply
Your comments are welcome. However, specific medical advice will not be provided, and we urge you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions. FightCRC is not responsible for the medical accuracy of any comments left by persons other than FightCRC staff members. FightCRC staff members monitor comments and may respond publicly where appropriate.
Please note that we automatically publish the name that you enter next to your post. Also note that our pages are automatically indexed by Google and other search engines, and your name may therefore appear in search results on those sites. So if you wish to remain anonymous please use a different name or enter 'Anon' as the name.
We regret that we are unable to privately answer questions left as comments. So please do not include your phone number, email or mailing address in the body of your comment. For the best personal and direct response to your colorectal cancer treatment questions, please call our Answer Line at 1-877-4CRC-111 (1-877-427-2111).