Laparoscopy For Colon Cancer Could Offer Long-term Survival Benefit Over Conventional SurgeryJune 26, 2002A study in this week's issue of THE LANCET suggests that laparoscopy-assisted surgery to treat colon cancer could be more favourable than conventional open surgery, with the potential to reduce operative complications, hospital stay, and increase cancer-related survival in the longer term. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in Western countries. Prognosis associated with this disease has improved due to early diagnosis and changes in medical therapy. Adjuvant chemotherapy in colon cancer, radiotherapy, and introduction of the total mesorectal excision technique in rectal cancer have increased survival, especially in patients with advanced (stage III) tumours. Although early reports on laparoscopy-assisted colectomy (LAC) in patients with colon cancer suggest that it can reduce complications around the time of surgery, its influence on long-term outcomes is unknown. Antonio Lacy and colleagues from Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain, aimed to compare the efficacy of LAC and open colectomy (OC) for treatment of non-metastatic colon cancer in terms of tumour recurrence and survival. 219 patients with colon cancer were randomly assigned to receive either LAC or open colectomy (OC). Patients in the LAC group required shorter stays in hospital (around five days) compared with patients given conventional surgery (eight day hospital stay); surgery-related complications were less frequent in patients given laparoscopy (12 of 111 patients) than those given open surgery (31 of 108 patients). Patients given laparoscopy had a 60% reduced risk of tumour relapse compared with those given open surgery. Patients in the LAC group also had a relative risk reduction of 50% of death from all causes compared with patients in the OC group. Antonio Lacy comments: "our results show that LAC should be preferred to OC in patients with colon cancer because it reduces perioperative morbidity, shortens hospital stay, and prolongs cancer-related survival. This latter benefit was mainly due to differences in the subset of patients with stage III tumours, in whom LAC was also associated with lower tumour recurrence and longer overall survival. If these results were confirmed by ongoing multicentre randomised trials, LAC would become the standard surgical approach to patients with colon cancer." | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Related Colon Cancer Current Events and Colon Cancer News Articles Drop in cancer deaths tied primarily to gains in behavior and screening Improvements in behavior and screening have contributed greatly to the 13 percent decline in cancer mortality since 1990, with better cancer treatments playing a supporting role, according to new research from David Cutler of Harvard University. Combining targeted therapy drugs may treat previously resistant tumors A team of cancer researchers from several Boston academic medical centers has discovered a potential treatment for a group of tumors that have resisted previous targeted therapy approaches. A Simple Blood Test for Colon Cancer People are often reluctant to undergo a routine but painful colonoscopy ― but the consequences can be fatal. According to the American Cancer Society, colon cancer is the third most common cancer found in American men and women and kills about 50,000 Americans every year. Adalimumab may reduce health-care costs for Crohn's disease patients Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a term that refers to both ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). IBD occurs most frequently in people in their late teens and twenties. There have been cases in children as young as two years old and in older adults in their seventies and eighties; men and women have an equal chance of getting the disease. Washington University scientists first to sequence genome of cancer patient For the first time, scientists have decoded the complete DNA of a cancer patient and traced her disease - acute myelogenous leukemia - to its genetic roots. Minority patients discouraged from cancer screening by negative messages New behavioral science research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, found that constantly emphasizing the negative consequences of a lack of cancer screening among minorities can actually make them less likely to go for screening. Sibling study could lead to better treatments for inherited form of colon cancer Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) believe they may be one step closer to understanding how certain forms of colon cancer develop. What's the role of beta-catenin in colorectal cancers? Beta-catenin, a central molecule of the Wnt-signaling pathway was previously known to involve in the tumorigenesis of various gastrointestinal cancers such as gastric cancer and colon cancer. Jefferson Department of Surgery announces new pancreas tumor registry Charles J. Yeo, M.D., Samuel D. Gross Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, announces the establishment of the new Jefferson Pancreas Tumor Registry (JPTR). Supercomputer provides massive computational boost to biomedical research at TGen In less time than the blink of an eye, the Translational Genomics Research Institute's new supercomputer at Arizona State University can do operations equal to every dollar in the recent Wall Street bailout. More Colon Cancer Current Events and Colon Cancer News Articles |
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