Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) guidelines 2024 for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer is a major cause of death in Japan, where it accounts for the largest number of deaths from malignant neoplasms among women and the third largest number among men. Many new methods of treatment have been developed during recent decades. The Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum Guidelines 2014 for treatment of colorectal cancer (JSCCR Guidelines 2014) have been prepared as standard treatment strategies for colorectal cancer, to eliminate treatment disparities among institutions, to eliminate unnecessary treatment and insufficient treatment, and to deepen mutual understanding among health-care professionals and patients by making these guidelines available to the general public. These guidelines have been prepared as a result of consensuses reached by the JSCCR Guideline Committee on the basis of careful review of evidence retrieved by literature searches and taking into consideration the medical health insurance system and actual clinical practice in Japan. They can, therefore, be used as a guide for treating colorectal cancer in clinical practice. More specifically, they can be used as a guide to obtaining informed consent from patients and choosing the method of treatment for each patient. As a result of the discussions of the Guideline Committee, controversial issues were selected as clinical questions, and recommendations were made. Each recommendation is accompanied by a classification of the evidence and a classification of recommendation categories, on the basis of consensus reached by Guideline Committee members. Here we present the English version of the JSCCR Guidelines 2014.

The number of deaths from colorectal cancer in Japan continues to increase. Colorectal cancer deaths exceeded 50,000 in 2016. In the 2019 edition, revision of all aspects of treatments was performed, with corrections and additions made based on knowledge acquired since the 2016 version (drug therapy) and the 2014 version (other treatments). The Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum guidelines 2019 for the treatment of colorectal cancer (JSCCR guidelines 2019) have been prepared to show standard treatment strategies for colorectal cancer, to eliminate disparities among institutions in terms of treatment, to eliminate unnecessary treatment and insufficient treatment and to deepen mutual understanding between healthcare professionals and patients by making these guidelines available to the general public. These guidelines have been prepared by consensuses reached by the JSCCR Guideline Committee, based on a careful review of the evidence retrieved by literature searches and in view of the medical health insurance system and actual clinical practice settings in Japan. Therefore, these guidelines can be used as a tool for treating colorectal cancer in actual clinical practice settings. More specifically, they can be used as a guide to obtaining informed consent from patients and choosing the method of treatment for each patient. Controversial issues were selected as clinical questions, and recommendations were made. Each recommendation is accompanied by a classification of the evidence and a classification of recommendation categories based on the consensus reached by the Guideline Committee members. Here, we present the English version of the JSCCR guidelines 2019.

Colorectal cancer is a major cause of death in Japan, where it accounts for the largest number of deaths from malignant neoplasms in women and the third largest number in men. Many new treatment methods have been developed over the last few decades. The Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) guidelines 2010 for the treatment of colorectal cancer (JSCCR Guidelines 2010) have been prepared to show standard treatment strategies for colorectal cancer, to eliminate disparities among institutions in terms of treatment, to eliminate unnecessary treatment and insufficient treatment, and to deepen mutual understanding between health-care professionals and patients by making these Guidelines available to the general public. These Guidelines have been prepared by consensuses reached by the JSCCR Guideline Committee, based on a careful review of the evidence retrieved by literature searches and in view of the medical health insurance system and actual clinical practice settings in Japan. Therefore, these Guidelines can be used as a tool for treating colorectal cancer in actual clinical practice settings. More specifically, they can be used as a guide to obtaining informed consent from patients and choosing the method of treatment for each patient. As a result of the discussions held by the Guideline Committee, controversial issues were selected as Clinical Questions, and recommendations were made. Each recommendation is accompanied by a classification of the evidence and a classification of recommendation categories based on the consensus reached by the Guideline Committee members. Here we present the English version of the JSCCR Guidelines 2010.

Japanese mortality due to colorectal cancer is on the rise, surpassing 49,000 in 2015. Many new treatment methods have been developed during recent decades. The Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum Guidelines 2016 for the treatment of colorectal cancer (JSCCR Guidelines 2016) were prepared to show standard treatment strategies for colorectal cancer, to eliminate disparities among institutions in terms of treatment, to eliminate unnecessary treatment and insufficient treatment, and to deepen mutual understanding between health-care professionals and patients by making these Guidelines available to the general public. These Guidelines were prepared by consensus reached by the JSCCR Guideline Committee, based on a careful review of the evidence retrieved by literature searches, and in view of the medical health insurance system and actual clinical practice settings in Japan. Therefore, these Guidelines can be used as a tool for treating colorectal cancer in actual clinical practice settings. More specifically, they can be used as a guide to obtaining informed consent from patients and choosing the method of treatment for each patient. As a result of the discussions held by the Guideline Committee, controversial issues were selected as Clinical Questions, and recommendations were made. Each recommendation is accompanied by a classification of the evidence and a classification of recommendation categories based on the consensus reached by the Guideline Committee members. Here we present the English version of the JSCCR Guidelines 2016.

Hereditary colorectal cancer (HCRC) accounts for < 5% of all colorectal cancer cases. Some of the unique characteristics commonly encountered in HCRC cases include early age of onset, synchronous/metachronous cancer occurrence, and multiple cancers in other organs. These characteristics necessitate different management approaches, including diagnosis, treatment or surveillance, from sporadic colorectal cancer management. There are two representative HCRC, named familial adenomatous polyposis and Lynch syndrome. Other than these two HCRC syndromes, related disorders have also been reported. Several guidelines for hereditary disorders have already been published worldwide. In Japan, the first guideline for HCRC was prepared by the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR), published in 2012 and revised in 2016. This revised version of the guideline was immediately translated into English and published in 2017. Since then, several new findings and novel disease concepts related to HCRC have been discovered. The currently diagnosed HCRC rate in daily clinical practice is relatively low; however, this is predicted to increase in the era of cancer genomic medicine, with the advancement of cancer multi-gene panel testing or whole genome testing, among others. Under these circumstances, the JSCCR guidelines 2020 for HCRC were prepared by consensus among members of the JSCCR HCRC Guideline Committee, based on a careful review of the evidence retrieved from literature searches, and considering the medical health insurance system and actual clinical practice settings in Japan. Herein, we present the English version of the JSCCR guidelines 2020 for HCRC.

Approximately 5% of all colorectal cancers have a strong genetic component and are classified as hereditary colorectal cancer (HCRC). Some of the unique features commonly seen in HCRC cases include early age of onset, synchronous/metachronous cancer occurrence, and multiple cancers in other organs. These characteristics require different management approaches, including diagnosis, treatment or surveillance, from those used in the management of sporadic colorectal cancer. Accurate diagnosis of HCRC is essential because it enables targeted surveillance and risk reduction strategies that improve patient outcomes. Recent genetic advances revealed several causative genes for polyposis and non-polyposis syndromes. The Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) first published guidelines for the management of HCRC in 2012, with subsequent revisions every 4years. The 2024 update to the JSCCR guidelines for HCRC was developed by meticulously reviewing evidence from systematic reviews and the consensus of the JSCCR HCRC Guidelines Committee, which includes representatives from patient advocacy groups for FAP and Lynch syndrome. These guidelines provide an up-to-date summary of HCRC, along with clinical recommendations for managing FAP and Lynch syndrome.

BackgroundAccording to guidelines, a lot of patients with T1 colorectal cancers (CRCs) undergo additional surgery with lymph node dissection after being treated by endoscopic resection (ER) despite the low incidence of lymph node metastasis (LNM).AimThe aim of this study was to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) model to more effectively identify T1 CRCs at risk for LNM and reduce the rate of unnecessary additional surgery.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed 651 patients with T1 CRCs. The patient cohort was randomly divided into a training set (546 patients) and a test set (105 patients) (ratio 5:1), and a classification and regression tree (CART) algorithm was trained on the training set to develop a predictive AI model for LNM. The model used 12 clinicopathological factors to predict positivity or negativity for LNM. To compare the performance of the AI model with the conventional guidelines, the test set was evaluated according to the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines. Finally, we tested the performance of the AI model using the test set and compared it with the JSCCR and NCCN guidelines.ResultsThe AI model had better predictive performance (AUC=0.960) than the JSCCR (AUC=0.588) and NCCN guidelines (AUC=0.850). The specificity (85.8% vs. 17.5%, p<0.001), balanced accuracy (92.9% vs. 58.7%, p=0.001), and the positive predictive value (36.3% vs. 9.0%, p=0.001) of the AI model were significantly better than those of the JSCCR guidelines and reduced the percentage of the high-risk group for LNM from 83.8% (JSCCR) to 20.9%. The specificity of the AI model was higher than that of the NCCN guidelines (85.8% vs. 82.4%, p=0.557), but there was no significant difference between the two. The sensitivity of the NCCN guidelines was lower than that of our AI model (87.5% vs. 100%, p=0.301), and according to the NCCN guidelines, 1.2% of the 105 test set patients had missed diagnoses.ConclusionThe AI model has better performance than conventional guidelines for predicting LNM in T1 CRCs and therefore could significantly reduce unnecessary additional surgery.

Hereditary colorectal cancer accounts for less than 5% of all colorectal cancer cases. Some of the unique characteristics that are commonly encountered in cases of hereditary colorectal cancer include early age at onset, synchronous/metachronous occurrence of the cancer, and association with multiple cancers in other organs, necessitating different management from sporadic colorectal cancer. While the diagnosis of familial adenomatous polyposis might be easy because usually 100 or more adenomas that develop in the colonic mucosa are in this condition, Lynch syndrome, which is the most commonly associated disease with hereditary colorectal cancer, is often missed in daily medical practice because of its relatively poorly defined clinical characteristics. In addition, the disease concept and diagnostic criteria for Lynch syndrome, which was once called hereditary non‐polyposis colorectal cancer, have changed over time with continual research, thereby possibly creating confusion in clinical practice. Under these circumstances, the JSCCR Guideline Committee has developed the “JSCCR Guidelines 2016 for the Clinical Practice of Hereditary Colorectal Cancer (HCRC)," to allow delivery of appropriate medical care in daily practice to patients with familial adenomatous polyposis, Lynch syndrome, or other related diseases. The JSCCR Guidelines 2016 for HCRC were prepared by consensus reached among members of the JSCCR Guideline Committee, based on a careful review of the evidence retrieved from literature searches, and considering the medical health insurance system and actual clinical practice settings in Japan. Herein, we present the English version of the JSCCR Guidelines 2016 for HCRC.

454 Background: A number of studies have examined the prognostic factors associated with pulmonary metastases of colorectal carcinoma (CRC). However, it has not yet been clarified which factor to emphasize taking the treatment strategy into consideration. Methods: The baseline characteristics and outcomes on 352 CRC patients undergoing complete pulmonary resection were collected from 19 institutions by the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) Study Group (Group A). The clinical and pathological factors were entered into a multivariate analysis to identify independent variables that were helpful for accurately predicting the long-term prognoses after pulmonary resection. Using the prognostic factors of Group A and the following processes (1) to (3), we developed and examined a new prognostic staging system (PSS): (1) Pulmonary (PUL) staging was performed using only pulmonary metastases-related factors in order to further clarify the prognosis. (2) The PSS was created using the PUL staging, primary cancer-related factors and hepatic metastases-related factors. (3) The new PSS was examined in a validation study in a series of 944 patients from 110 institutions of the JSCCR by the 78th society of the JSCCR (Group B). Results: (1) PUL1a: No. of metastases (No.) = 1 and DFI &gt; 2 years;(The 5-year OS: 66.7%, RFS rates: 52.8%). PUL1b: No. = 1 and DFI ≤ 2 years or No. = 2 or No. ≥ 3 and a unilateral distribution; (47.4%, 30.7%). PUL2:No. ≥ 3 and a bilateral distribution or the presence of lymph node metastases or pleural dissemination; (17.4%, 11.1%), (p&lt;0.01). (2) Grade A: PUL1a and lymph node metastases of N0, N1 or N2, or PUL1b and N0; (75.4%, 55.1%). Grade B: PUL1a and N3 or hepatic metastases cases or PUL1b and N1 or N2; (52.0%, 30.8%). Grade C: PUL1b and N3 or hepatic metastases cases or PUL2; (18.2%, 9.0%), (p&lt;0.01). (3) Grade A (n=324): 75.3%, 53.7%; Grade B (n=359): 60.8%, 41.5% and Grade C (n=261): 48.2%, 21.9%. (p&lt;0.01). Conclusions: Our new PSS was useful for the selection of patients suitable for pulmonary resection.

The Japan Society of Gynecologic Oncology (JSGO) Guidelines 2017 for the Treatment of Uterine Cervical Cancer are for the purpose of providing standard treatment strategies for cervical cancer, indicating treatment methods currently considered appropriate for cervical cancer, minimizing variances in treatment methods among institutions, improving the safety of treatment and prognosis of diseases, reducing the economic and psychosomatic burden of patients by promoting performance of appropriate treatment, and enhancing mutual understanding between patients and healthcare professionals. The guidelines were prepared through consensus of the JSGO Guideline Committee, based on careful review of evidence gathered through the literature searches and in view of the medical health insurance system and actual clinical practice situations in Japan. The guidelines comprise eight chapters and five algorithms. The main features of the 2017 revision are as follows: (1) evidence was collected using a search formula and with cooperation of the Japan Library Association. The bibliographical search formula was placed at the end of the book; (2) regarding clinical questions (CQs) where evidence or clinical inspection in Japan was lacking, opinions of the Guidelines Committee were described as "proposals for future directions"; (3) cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 3 and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) were treated as a cervical precancerous lesion; (4) the CQs of endoscopic surgery, radical trachelectomy, and sentinel node biopsy were newly added in Chapter3, "primary treatment for stage IB-II cervical cancer"; and (5) the CQ about hormone replacement therapy after cancer treatment was newly established. Each recommendation is accompanied by a classification of recommendation categories based on the consensus reached by the Guideline Committee members. Here, we present the English version of the JSGO Guidelines 2017 for the Treatment of Uterine Cervical Cancer.

3540 Background: It is unclear which drug of REG or TAS-102 should be used earlier for the patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) who have access to both drugs. This study investigated the comparison of the efficacy between REG and TAS-102 in patients with refractory to standard chemotherapies. Methods: The clinical data of patients who were treated with REG or TAS-102 among these drugs naive mCRC patients between Jun 2014 and Sep 2015 were retrospectively delivered from 24 institutions of Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR). The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Propensity score (PS) was calculated with a logistic regression, in which using baseline parameters were included. Two methods, adjusted and matched analysis, to take propensity score were used. The clinical outcomes were evaluated with Kaplan-Meier method and Cox models based on PS adjustment and matching. Results: Total of 589 patients were enrolled and 550 patients (223 patients in the REG group and 327 patients in the TAS-102 group) met criteria for inclusion in the analysis. The results from PS adjusted analyses showed that OS was similar between the two groups (HR of TAS-102 to REG, 0.96; 95% confidence interval, 0.78–1.18). There were also no statistically significant differences between two groups for progression-free survival (HR 0.94) and time to ECOG Performance status≥2 (HR 1.00), expect for time to treatment failure (HR 0.81; P = 0.025). In the subgroup analysis, REG showed favorable survival compared with TAS-102 in the age of &lt; 65 years patients and unfavorable survival in ≥65 years patients (P for interaction = 0.012). In the PS matched sample (174 patients in each group), the clinical outcomes were similar to the results of the PS adjusted analysis. Conclusions: Although REG and TAS-102 showed a similar efficacy in mCRC patients with refractory to standard chemotherapies, the choice of the drug by age might affect the survival. Supported by JSCCR. Clinical trial information: UMIN000020416

Reply to the Letter to the Editor ‘Is fluoropyrimidindes without oxaliplatin optimal for the adjuvant treatment of mainstream stage III colon cancer?’ by Abali et al.

The Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) published the guidelines 2019 for the treatment of colorectal cancer in March 2019. The new edition expanded the indications of endoscopic treatment, enriched the follow-up recommendations after endoscopic resection of early colorectal cancer, supplemented the indications of ISR and added the recommendations of lymph node recurrence and peritoneal recurrence. In the new edition, the adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy schemes were revised and patients with first-line chemotherapy were divided into three categories as follows: appropriate for intensive systemic therapy (fit), inappropriate for intensive systemic therapy (vulnerable), and inappropriate for systemic therapy (frail). The new edition of guidelines can also provide references to the doctors of colorectal cancer in our country. This article intends to interpret the essentials of this new edition.

Simple SummaryObese patients are known to be at higher risk of developing colorectal cancer. Meanwhile, the rate of obesity continues to rise worldwide. Current guidelines by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR) are not modified to account for the needs of obese patients with colorectal cancer. In this study we aimed to review and compare the existing guidelines and make recommendations specific to this group of patients. We proposed changes in the diagnostic work-up, follow-up and surveillance, perioperative pathways, and management of metastatic disease, with an emphasis on minimally invasive surgical procedures. We concluded that there is need to modify the existing colorectal cancer guidelines to address the needs of obese patients and recommend that a multidisciplinary approach, with involvement of bariatric principles, should be considered.The link between obesity and colorectal cancer has been well established. The worldwide rise in obesity rates in the past 40 years means that we are dealing with increasing numbers of obese patients with colorectal cancer. We aimed to review the existing guidelines and make recommendations specific to this group of patients. Upon comparing the current NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines ®), the guidelines from the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the guidelines of the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum (JSCCR), we observed that these did not take into consideration the needs of obese patients. We proceeded to make specific recommendations with regards to the diagnostic work-up, surgical pathways, minimally invasive technique, perioperative treatment, post-operative surveillance, and management of metastatic disease in this group of patients. Our review highlights the need for modification of the existing guidelines to account for the needs of this patient cohort. A multidisciplinary approach, including principles used by bariatric surgeons, should be the way forward to reach consensus in the management of this group of patients.

IntroductionFollowing the endoscopic resection of a colorectal polyp cancer, the decision on completion surgery is a key issue for MDT and patient. Histological features considered in this decision include Poorly...