DOES SPHINCTER SAVING SURGICAL PROCEDURES EFFECT SURVIVAL IN RECTUM CANCER?

Abstract

Rectal cancer is the most frequent tumor among colorectal tumors. Between 1992-1999, 62 patients had undergone surgical treatment for low and mid rectal cancer. Low anterior resection (LAR) or abdomino-perineal resection (APR) were performed in 27 and 35 of the cases, respectively. Age, sex and stages were equal in both groups. But poorly-differentiated tumors were significantly more frequent in the APR group. Local recurrence was seen in 40% of the cases with APR, and in 14.8% of the patients with LAR (p<0.05).The disease-free and total survival periods in the APR patients were 30.1 and 34.9 months and in the LAR cases were 31.1 and 35.9 months, respectively. According to Kaplan-Meier survival estimation method, disease-free and total survival rates, in the patients with APR were 44 and 53 percent, and in the patients with LAR were 51 and 50 percent, respectively. These parameters were found to be statistically insignificant. LAR found to be comparable to APR according their disease-free and total survival periods.