Limits of Clinical Restaging in Detecting Responders After Neoadjuvant Therapies for Rectal Cancer

BACKGROUND: :Accurate clinical restaging is required to select patients who respond to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer and who may benefit from an organ preservation strategy. OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this study was to review our experience with the clinical restaging of rectal cancer after neoadjuvant therapy to assess its accuracy in detecting major and pathological complete response to treatment. DESIGN:This was a retrospective cohort study. SETTING:This study was conducted at 2 high-volume Italian centers for Colorectal Surgery. PATIENTS:Data were included from all consecutive patients who underwent neoadjuvant therapy and surgery for locally advanced rectal cancer from January 2012 to July 2020. Criteria to define clinical response were no palpable mass, a superficial ulcer <2 cm (major response), or no mucosal abnormality (complete response) at endoscopy and no metastatic nodes at MRI. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:The main outcome measures were sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values of clinical restaging in detecting pathological complete response (ypT0) or major pathological response (ypT0-1) after neoadjuvant therapy. RESULTS:A total of 333 patients were included; 81 (24.3%) had a complete response whereas 115 (34.5%) had a pathological major response. Accuracy for clinical complete response was 80.8% and for major clinical response was 72.9%. Sensitivity was low for both clinical complete response (37.5%) in detecting ypT0 and clinical major response (59.3%) in detecting ypT0-1. Positive predictive value was 68.2% for ypT0 and 60.4% for ypT0-1. LIMITATIONS:The main limitation of the study its retrospective nature. CONCLUSION:Accuracy of actual clinical criteria to define pathological complete response or pathological major response is poor. Failure to achieve good sensitivity and precision is a major limiting factor in the clinical setting. Current clinical assessments need to be revised to account for indications for rectal preservation after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/C63.

Automated summary

This study retrospectively reviewed the clinical restaging of rectal cancer after neoadjuvant therapy, and found limitations in accurately detecting the complete pathological response to treatment. Current clinical assessments need to be revised to account for indications for rectal preservation after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.