[Postoperative Dysfunction and Quality of Life in Patients with Rectal Cancer]

Standard treatment for low advanced rectal cancer is total mesorectal excision(TME)plus bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection in Japan. It has been expanded sphincter-preserving rectal surgery due to improvement of surgical procedures for rectal cancer. However, autonomic nerves are close to rectum, it is important to establish a treatment strategy that is considering the patients of quality of life(QOL)after rectal cancer surgery. Here, we investigated the frequency and how to deal with dysuria, sexual dysfunction, defecation dysfunction and stoma related complications after rectal cancer surgery. It is considered that it is more important to increase the number of patients with rectal cancer, especially of elderly patients, to evaluate the preoperative function of each patient and select individual treatment based on the progress of the cancer.