Preoperative Radiotherapy Decision-Tree for Rectal Cancer Patients: A Real-World Analysis Based on the Swedish Colorectal Cancer Registry

Background

There are 3 widely used preoperative radiotherapy (RT) procedures in rectal cancer treatment including long-course RT (LRT), short-course RT with delayed surgery (SRTW), and short-course RT with immediate surgery (SRT). However, further evidence is required to determine which treatment option results in more optimal patient survival.

Methods

This Swedish Colorectal Cancer Registry-based retrospective study of real-world data included 7766 stage I–III rectal cancer patients, of which 2982, 1089, 763, and 2932 patients received no RT (NRT), LRT, SRTW, and SRT, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Cox proportional hazard multivariate model were used to identify potential risk factors and to examine the independent association of RT with patient survival after adjusting for baseline confounding factors.

Results

RT effects on survival differed by age and clinical T stage (cT) subgroups. Subsequent survival analysis by age and cT subgroups confirmed that patients ≥70 years old with cT4 benefited from any RT (P < .001, NRT as reference) and equally from any RT (P > .05 pairwise between RTs). In contrast, for cT3 patients ≥70 years, SRT and LRT were associated with better survival than SRTW (P < .001). In patients <70 years, LRT and SRTW had superior survival benefits in cT4 patients but inferior to SRT (P < .001); SRT was the only effective treatment in the cT3N+ subgroup (P = .032); patients with cT3N0 and <70 years did not benefit from any RT.

Conclusion

This study suggests that preoperative RT strategies may have varying effects on the survival of rectal cancer patients, depending on their age and clinical stage.