Objective: Compare oncological long-term and short-term outcomes between patients with distal cT2NO rectal cancer treated with chemoradio-therapy and local excision (CRT + LE) and patients treated... Show moreObjective: Compare oncological long-term and short-term outcomes between patients with distal cT2NO rectal cancer treated with chemoradio-therapy and local excision (CRT + LE) and patients treated with total mesorectal excision (TME). Summary Background Data: Previous studies showed that CRT + LE is equivalent to TME in local tumor control and survival for T2N0 rectal cancer. Methods: Seventy-nine patients with cT2N0 rectal adenocarcinoma treated with CRT + LE in the ACOSOG Z6041 trial were compared to a cohort of 79 patients with pT2N0 tumors treated with upfront TME in the Dutch TME trial. Survival, short-term outcomes, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) were compared between groups. Results:Three patients (4%) in the CRT + LE group required abdominoperineal resection, compared with 31 (40%) in the TME group. Forty TME patients (51%) required a permanent stoma. CRT-related toxicity occurred in 43% of the CRT + LE patients; however, TME patients had a higher rate of complications requiring reoperation (1 vs 9%; P = 0.03). Five-year disease-free survival {88.2% [confidence interval (CI), 77.7%-93.9%] vs 88.3% [CI, 78.7%-93.7%]; P = 0.88} and overall survival [90.3% (CI, 80.8%-95.3%) vs 88.4% (CI, 78.9%-93.8%); P = 0.82] were similar in the 2 groups. Compared to baseline, overall HRQOL decreased in the CRT + LE group and improved in the TME group. In both groups, patients with sphincter preservation had worse HRQOL scores 1 year after surgery. Conclusions: In patients who underwent CRT + LE, oncological outcomes were similar to those of patients who underwent TME, with fewer complications requiring reoperation but significant CRT toxicity. Although overall HRQOL decreased in the CRT + LE group and improved in TME patients, when considering anorectal function, results were worse in both groups. Show less
Background: The Intergroup 0116 and the MAGIC trials changed clinical practice for resectable gastric cancer in the Western world. In these trials, overall survival improved with post-operative... Show moreBackground: The Intergroup 0116 and the MAGIC trials changed clinical practice for resectable gastric cancer in the Western world. In these trials, overall survival improved with post-operative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and perioperative chemotherapy (CT). Intention-to-treat analysis in the CRITICS trial of post-operative CT or post-operative CRT did not show a survival difference. The current study reports on the per-protocol (PP) analysis of the CRITICS trial.Patients and methods: The CRITICS trial was a randomized, controlled trial in which 788 patients with stage Ib-Iva resectable gastric or esophagogastric adenocarcinoma were included. Before start of preoperative CT, patients from the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark were randomly assigned to receive post-operative CT or CRT. For the current analysis, only patients who started their allocated post-operative treatment were included. Since it is uncertain that the two treatment arms are balanced in such PP analysis, adjusted proportional hazards regression analysis and inverse probability weighted analysis were used to minimize the risk of selection bias and to estimate and compare overall and event-free survival.Results: Of the 788 patients, 478 started post-operative treatment according to protocol, 233 (59%) patients in the CT group and 245 (62%) patients in the CRT group. Patient and tumor characteristics between the groups before start of the post-operative treatment were not different. After a median follow-up of 6.7 years since the start of post-operative treatment, the 5-year overall survival was 57.9% (95% confidence interval: 51.4% to 64.3%) in the CT group versus 45.5% (95% confidence interval: 39.2% to 51.8%) in the CRT group (adjusted hazard ratio CRT versus CT: 1.62 (1.24-2.12), P = 0.0004). Inverse probability weighted analysis resulted in similar hazard ratios.Conclusion: After adjustment for all known confounding factors, the PP analysis of patients who started the allocated post-operative treatment in the CRITICS trial showed that the CT group had a significantly better 5-year overall survival than the CRT group (NCT00407186). Show less
Background: Decreased cancer specific survival in older colorectal patients is mainly due to mortality in the first year, emphasizing the importance of the first postoperative year. This study aims... Show moreBackground: Decreased cancer specific survival in older colorectal patients is mainly due to mortality in the first year, emphasizing the importance of the first postoperative year. This study aims to gain an overview and time trends of short-term mortality in octogenarians (>= 80 years) with colorectal cancer across four North European countries.Methods: Patients of 80 years or older, operated for colorectal cancer (stage I-Ill) between 2005 and 2014, were included. Population-based cohorts from Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden were collected. Separately for colon- and rectal cancer, 30-day, 90-day, one-year, and excess one-year mortality were calculated. Also, short-term mortality over three time periods (2005-2008, 2009-2011, 2012-2014) was analyzed.Results: In total, 35,158 colon cancer patients and 10,144 rectal cancer patients were included. For colon cancer, 90-day mortality rate was highest in Denmark (15%) and lowest in Sweden (8%). For rectal cancer, 90-day mortality rate was highest in Belgium (11%) and lowest in Sweden (7%). One-year excess mortality rate of colon cancer patients decreased from 2005 to 2008 to 2012-2014 for all countries (Belgium: 17%-11%, Denmark: 21%-15%, the Netherlands: 18%-10%, and Sweden: 10%-8%). For rectal cancer, from 2005 to 2008 to 2012-2014 one-year excess mortality rate decreased in the Netherlands from 16% to 7% and Sweden: 8%-2%).Conclusions: Short-term mortality rates were high in octogenarians operated for colorectal cancer. Short-term mortality rates differ across four North European countries, but decreased over time for both colon and rectal cancer patients in all countries. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Show less
This thesis focus on the quality assurance in the surgical treatment of gastric cancer. This has been investigated using data of the CRITICS trial. In this randomized clinical patients underwent... Show moreThis thesis focus on the quality assurance in the surgical treatment of gastric cancer. This has been investigated using data of the CRITICS trial. In this randomized clinical patients underwent preoperative chemotherapy, followed by surgery, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Surgical quality in the CRITICS trial was investigated and was excellent (PART I). Furthermore, the influence of hospital volume on surgical quality and survival was analyzed using data of the CRITICS trial (PART II). Surgery performed in hospitals with high hospital volume was associated with better surgical quality and better survival. In part III of this thesis analyses were performed to analyze treatment strategy and survival in patients with resectable gastric cancer and in patients with metastatic gastric cancer. Show less
Vermeer, N.C.A.; Claassen, Y.H.M.; Derks, M.G.M.; Iversen, L.H.; Eycken, E. van; Guren, M.G.; ... ; Bastiaannet, E. 2018
