East Montgomery Times

Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers presented a study at the Society of Surgical Oncology 2025 Annual Meeting, indicating that chemotherapy followed by local excision could be a viable treatment for patients with node-negative low rectal cancer. The standard treatment for tumors in the lower rectum typically involves total mesorectal excision, an intensive surgery. This often necessitates an ostomy bag post-surgery and impacts patients significantly.

Dr. Hannah Buettner from Fox Chase, who presented the study, stated, "As you can imagine, all patients would like to avoid, if possible, having a permanent colostomy. So when they’re facing that surgical possibility, they really want to see if there’s anything else that we can do." She highlighted the benefits of pairing chemotherapy with local excision: "Our results found that by pairing it with chemotherapy, local excision can be an appropriate level of surgery in more cases. There are a lot of benefits. It’s a lower-risk procedure than total mesorectal excision, it has fewer side effects, and the recovery is shorter."

For the study, 19 patients with clinical stage T1-T3 low rectal adenocarcinoma were recruited. Each underwent six cycles of chemotherapy, with imaging showing no lymph node involvement. Sixteen patients with reduced or vanished tumors went on to have local excision, and fifteen achieved negative margins—no cancer detected in tissue near their tumor site.

The next phase involves scaling the study and adding a comparison group. Dr. Buettner commented, "Our study asked: Can we get patients to negative margins using neoadjuvant chemotherapy? The answer, so far, is yes. Studying more patients and also having a comparison between patients who get total mesorectal excision versus local excision will be the next step in getting more robust data to help clinicians and patients make informed treatment decisions." The findings, presented and titled "Phase II Study of Organ Preservation (OP) in Node-Negative (NN) Low Rectal Cancer (RC): Updated Clinical and Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs)," were shared in Tampa, Florida, from March 27-29.