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Ppublished in the medical journal The Lancet Oncology, the study finds that, in the near future, most patients “will be able to avoid aggressive surgery and instead adhere to a radio and chemotherapy protocol, followed by a few years of surveillance close upncia doctor “, announced today the Foundation Champalimaud.
“If these patients do not show signs of their disease again in the first years after treatment, the study concludes that the probability that the tumor will reappear locally or lead to the development of metastasis in places far from the body it is low ”, says the foundation.
According to the same source, this therapy does not invasive, the “Watch-and-Wait” protocol, which “drastically reduces the burden of the disease on the quality of life of patients, has accumulated promising results in the treatment of these tumors.”
The study now published in the specialty journal by researchers from Portugal, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands analyzed the cases of some 800 patients who had cancer. rectal between 1991 and 2015 and who underwent this non-invasive treatment instead of having surgery.
This study aimed to determine whether these patients should undergo medical follow-up for life or only for a specified period of time.
“Almost 70% of these patients, those who remained free of new tumors and metastasis over the next two to three years, they might have switched to less strict clinical follow-up and even dispensed with treatments oncological additional “, refers the Foundation Champalimaud.
For several years, the available treatment for cancer rectal consisted of surgery, which could include a colostomy permanent, forcing the patient to use, throughout his life, a bag attached to the intestine for the evacuation of feces.
According to the foundation, the “Watch-and-Wait” protocol foresees the realization, eight to ten weeks after the radiochemotherapy, of a series of diagnostic tests before deciding the need for surgery.
If the patient’s clinical response is “complete, if not detected a tumor in the various tests performed, the patient can choose to integrate the “Watch-and-Wait” protocol, says the Foundation Champalimaud.
“Ours zone The researcher needs real-world data to determine what type of surveillancencia active and how long these patients should be observed, “said Laura. Fernandez, of the foundation Champalimaud me co-author of the study, for whom the now published article provides “crucial information to guide clinicians in counseling cancer patients rectal“.
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