Rectal cancer staging: Correlation between the evaluation with radial echoendoscope and rigid linear probe

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology and oncology
• Medical imaging and diagnostics

Background:

• Rectal cancer staging is crucial for effective treatment.
• Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) is a key tool for locoregional staging.
• Both radial echoendoscopes and rigid linear probes are utilized in TRUS procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the correlation between radial echoendoscopy and rigid linear endosonography for rectal cancer staging.
• To compare the diagnostic accuracy of two TRUS probe types.

Main Methods:

• Prospective analysis of 48 rectal cancer patients.
• Utilized both radial echoendoscopy and rigid linear endosonography.
• Staging based on American Joint Committee on Cancer criteria; surgical pathology as gold standard.
• Kappa index used for concordance analysis.

Main Results:

• Near-perfect agreement (Kappa=0.827) for T staging between the two methods.
• Substantial agreement for T staging, with slightly lower performance for T2.
• Moderate agreement (Kappa=0.423) for lymph node (N) staging.

Conclusions:

• Radial echoendoscopy and rigid linear endosonography demonstrate high concordance for T staging.
• Findings suggest comparable diagnostic value for tumor invasion assessment.
• Moderate agreement for N staging indicates further investigation may be needed.