Current situation and think of watch and wait strategy after neoadjuvant treatment of rectal cancer / 国际外科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Some patients with rectal cancer can achieve clinical complete response (cCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The watch and wait strategy for cCR patients can achieve similar curative effects as radical surgery, avoid surgical complications, and significantly improve the quality of life of patients, which is attracting increasing attention. Although the existing research results support that the watch and wait strategy is safe and feasible, there is still a lack of high-level evidence-based medicine evidence. There are still many issues in the implementation of the watch and wait strategy that need to be further clarified, including long-term oncology efficacy, cCR diagnosis and evaluation criteria, appropriate patient selection, follow-up strategies during the observation period, and treatment methods for local tumor regeneration. This article will explain the above problems based on the results of the existing literature and the clinical experience of our center.