Abstract
Background: The therapeutic gain of surgery for recurrent rectal cancer is not clear, particularly with regard to the addition of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT). Methods: Patients (107) with isolated pelvic recurrence of rectal cancer received preoperative external radiotherapy of 46–50 in 2 Gy fractions. At surgery 59 patients had IORT 12–18 Gy. Survival and local recurrence was analysed with regard to surgical resection stages and IORT. Results: Patients (44) had R0- and 39 R1-resections, 24 R2-resections or exploratory laparotomy. IORT was given most often after R1-resections, least in R0-patients. Estimated 5-year survival was overall around 30%, around 60% in the R0-, around 25% for R1- and 0% in R2-patients. Local recurrence was around 30% in the R0- and around 65% in R1-stage patients. R0-/R1-stage patients survived statistically significantly longer than the R2-group otherwise there was no statistical significant difference between IORT and non-IORT groups in any R-stages regarding overall survival or local recurrence. Conclusions: Macroscopic removal of the recurrence improves survival. Whether R0- is better than R1-resections is not clear. The effect of IORT is not a major one. IORT need be evaluated in randomised controlled trials.
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