Outcome of Resection for Colorectal Cancer

Radical colectomy and proctectomy with regional lymphadenectomy remain the standard recommendation for patients with early and medium-stage colorectal cancer. Current guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network indicate that either laparotomy (open surgery) or laparoscopy (minimally invasive surgery performed with either conventional or robotic techniques) is an acceptable approach to radical resection in patients with early- and medium stage (I to III) colorectal cancer. These recommendations have led to widespread use of a minimally invasive approach for radical resection, although there is a paucity of adequately powered, prospective, randomized trials evaluating short term and survival outcomes.

Retrospective studies involving patients with early and medium-stage colorectal cancer have shown that laparoscopic resection is associated with less intraoperative blood loss, a shorter length of hospital stay, and a lower risk of postoperative complications than open abdominal radical resection. Similarly, the minimally invasive approach has not been associated with lower 5-year rates of disease-free survival or overall survival than the open approach. In addition, retrospective studies have shown that recurrence rates and survival rates do not differ significantly between the two approaches.

The investigators hypothesized that minimally invasive surgery was not inferior or superior to open radical resection in terms of short-term and long-term outcome. In the present trial, the Laparoscopic Resection and Laparotomy for Colorectal Cancer (LRLCC) Trial, the investigators tested this hypothesis by prospectively assigning patients to minimally invasive (conventional laparoscopic or robotic) or open abdominal radical surgery and comparing the short-term outcome, the rate of recurrence, and the overall survival rate between the two groups.

Inclusion criteria

(i) tumor without distant metastasis; (ii) classified as stage I, II or III by TNM staging system; (iii) Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status of 0 or 1; (iv) a minimum of 12 lymph nodes resected to accurately identify stage; (v) solitary malignant lesion after thorough colonoscopy; (vi) complete resection (R0) with no positive nodes left behind; (vii) histological diagnosis of adenocarcinoma.

Exclusion criteria

(i) <18 years or >90 years; (ii) serious concurrent illness; (iii) clinically suspicious distant metastasis detected by positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT); (iv) familial adenomatous polyposis syndrome (FAP), hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) and other hereditary CRC; (v) postoperative pathological close, indeterminate, or positive margins; (vi) circumferential resection margin < 1mm in rectal cancer; (vii) short anticipated life expectancy due to postoperative comorbidities on account of cardiopulmonary insufficiency.