Short-term preoperative radiotherapy in rectal cancer patients leads to a reduction of the detectable number of lymph nodes in resection specimens

摘要

The Union Internationale Contre le Cancer and American Joint Committee on Cancer classification propose that pN0-classified colorectal lymphadenectomy specimens will ordinarily include 12 or more tumor-negative lymph nodes. We performed a clinical trial to investigate whether a short-term preoperative radiotherapy (5×5 Gy) leads to a reduction of the number of lymph nodes in rectal cancer specimens after total and partial mesorectal excision (TME and PME, respectively).