About this Research Topic
Rectal cancer is one of the most demanding pathologies for the colorectal surgeon. There are many details that make it so. On the one hand, the surgeon is part of a multidisciplinary team that must select the best overall treatment strategy for the patient, in a context where the number of options available is increasing. Secondly, it must be taken into consideration that, apart from the oncological results, the standard treatment involving neoadjuvant radio-chemotherapy and subsequent surgery, implies significant functional impairment, both digestive, urinary and sexual, and, therefore, of the quality of life. Finally, the surgeon and the quality of the surgery performed continue to be one of the most important prognostic factors for one of the main outcome variables, local recurrence. It is obvious that all this has to be put also in the context of reducing perioperative complications to the minimum, especially anastomotic leaks and definitive stoma rates.
Taking into account all these aspects and the multiple combinations of existing treatments, the development of minimally invasive surgery has also been increasing. In addition to conventional laparoscopy, which is still occasionally questioned today, the field of robotics, transanal dissection of the rectum (TATME), and the possibility of selecting patients who may be good candidates for non-radical treatment with local resection surgery (TEM, TEO, TAMIS), either alone or in combination with neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatments such as radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, have emerged.
This Research Topic aims to reflect the complexity of this pathology, the difficulty in decision-making, and the possibilities of selecting different treatment schemes, as well as the different minimally invasive approaches, including oncological, postoperative, and functional outcomes.
We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Systematic Reviews and Mini-Reviews.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Taking into account all these aspects and the multiple combinations of existing treatments, the development of minimally invasive surgery has also been increasing. In addition to conventional laparoscopy, which is still occasionally questioned today, the field of robotics, transanal dissection of the rectum (TATME), and the possibility of selecting patients who may be good candidates for non-radical treatment with local resection surgery (TEM, TEO, TAMIS), either alone or in combination with neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatments such as radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, have emerged.
This Research Topic aims to reflect the complexity of this pathology, the difficulty in decision-making, and the possibilities of selecting different treatment schemes, as well as the different minimally invasive approaches, including oncological, postoperative, and functional outcomes.
We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Systematic Reviews and Mini-Reviews.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Keywords: Rectal cancer, Minimally Invasive Surgery, Laparoscopy, Robotic Surgery, Transanal TME, TAMIS
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
