SEER-based Analysis of the Impact of Preoperative or Postoperative Radiation Therapy on Survival Outcomes for T3N0 Rectal Cancer

Abstract

The 2004 German Rectal Cancer Study Group and 2009 National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project established preoperative chemoradiation as standard of care for T3/T4 node-positive rectal cancer. Recent work, however, has called into question the overall benefit of radiation for tumors with lower risk characteristics, particularly for T3N0 rectal cancers. We performed a retrospective analysis of T3N0 rectal cancer patients and examined how outcomes differed according to the sequence of radiation and surgery received.