Comparative oncological outcomes and survival following surgery for low rectal cancer - a single center experience

In patients with low rectal cancer, intersphincteric resection (ISR) technique is a better alternative of abdominoperineal resection (APR), but is recommended to be done in non-locally advanced stages (=T2) only. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term oncological outcome and survival rate in patients with early and locally advanced stages that underwent ISR, as compared to APR. In order to assess the quality of life and prognosis of patients with low rectal cancer, the 5-year follow-up was done in 72 consecutive cases diagnosed in pT1-T4 stage that underwent ISR or APR. Histopathological and clinical parameters were compared between the two included groups. Although the quality of life was better in patients which underwent ISR, the 5-year overall survival rate was not found to be influenced by the used surgical technique (71% for ISR and 58% for APR) either by the histological grade of differentiation (p=0.62), independently from the T stage (p=0.61). Regardless of the type of surgery, the independent prognostic factors proved to be lymph node status (p=0.001), lymph node ratio (p=0.001), and clinical stage (p=0.0001). Lymph node status remains the most important prognostic factor of patients with low rectal cancer. Independently from the histological subtype and depth of tumor infiltration, good oncological results can be obtained when performing ISR in selected cases.