Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: Assessing Outcomes in Primary or Recurrent Rectal or Sigmoid Cancer With Tumour Extending Beyond the TME Plane
Brief Summary:
In the UK approximately 28,000 patients per year are diagnosed with bowel cancer. Further 15-20% develop pelvic recurrence. In a significant proportion of patients (15-20%), tumour extends beyond what the surgeon can routinely remove and requires more extensive (exenterative) surgery to achieve successful removal of the tumour. Currently MRI is used for the assessment of the pelvic tumour and PET/CT is used in order to prove that there is no extrapelvic disease, for the selection of patients who will undergo such a complex surgery. The investigators have previously shown, with a single centre retrospective analysis, that using a specific staging system for these tumours it is possible to predict both the likelihood of surgical success and overall survival outcomes. Until today there are no national guidelines for this group of patients.
The investigators want to test whether standardizing the assessment of these advanced tumours will help to improve outcomes for patients and better surgical planning. The investigators also want to show that the information from the scans gives valuable data regarding the long term outcomes and likelihood of surgical success.
This is a multicentre prospective trial of patients, who require more extensive surgery, using the staging classification. The high resolution MRI scans that patients undergo before surgery will be reported using the previously validated system.
It is hoped that the study will result in a better and standarised method of assessing advanced pelvic cancer, with the intent to improve the surgical planning and overall patient management, which may increase the possibility of surgical curative resection.