Postoperative chemotherapy may not be necessary for patients with ypN0-category after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy of rectal cancer.

PURPOSE: After neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy and surgery, there is no general agreement about whether postoperative chemotherapy is necessary. With the help of clinical and pathohistologic data, prognostic factors were determined as a basis for the decision to spare a patient additional chemotherapy or to urgently recommend it. RESULTS: Ninety-five patients treated with neoadjuvant 5-fluorouracil-based radiochemotherapy (November 4, 1997 and June 15, 2004) without distant metastases and an R0 (microscopically complete) resection were evaluated. Adjuvant chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil or 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid) was given to 65 of 95 patients (68.4 percent). The disease-free survival rate after 36 months was chosen as the target parameter (median follow-up, 36 months). METHODS: The five-year survival rate for all patients was 80.3 +/- 5.6 percent; the five-year disease-free survival was 78.1 +/- 5.1 percent; the five-year local control rate was 94.2 +/- 5.1 percent. In the univariate and multivariate analysis of the disease-free survival, the pathohistologic lymph node status after radiochemotherapy (ypN) was the only significant prognostic parameter. Disease-free survival (36 months) for patients without lymph node metastases (ypN0) was excellent, independent of whether they had received postoperative chemotherapy (n = 43; 87.5 +/- 6.0 percent) or not (n = 29; 87.7 +/- 6.7 percent). Patients with ypN2 status have, despite chemotherapy, a poor disease-free survival at 30 +/- 17.6 percent after 36 months. CONCLUSIONS: These retrospective data suggest that, for some patients, postoperative chemotherapy can be spared. For patients with ypN2 status, an intensification of the postoperative chemotherapy should be considered. Further evaluation in prospective studies is urgently recommended.

[Outpatient primary stent-PTA in a symptomatic internal artery stenosis under protection]. / Ambulante primäre Stent-PTA einer symptomatischen Arteria-carotis-interna-Stenose unter Protektion.

In a 69-year old patient, with a symptomatic ICA stenosis a stent implantation was performed under outpatient conditions. An interdisciplinary consensus was reached that the patient was suitable for outpatient therapy. In accordance with the NASCET criteria, the patient was to be classified to the high-risk group. Within 120 days before the intervention, the following clinical symptoms had occurred: 1 TIA, 2 amaurosis fugax. In the diagnostic angiography a right postbulbar ICA stenosis of 97% was verified. The stent application and subsequent PTA were performed under protection using a filter system. The transfemoral route was always fitted with an endovascular closure system. The neck vessels were followed-up by means of colour coded duplex sonography (CCDS) on days 1, 30, 180 and 360. A contrast-medium intensified MRI was performed on the 5th day post-intervention. The implantation of the stent and PTA were done without any complications. Atheromatous plaque fragments were found in the protection system. A plaque embolism was excluded clinically and in the contrast-medium intensified MRI 5 days after the intervention. After 360 days, no restenosis was found in the CCDS, the ECA was perfused. The method presented is low in complications and shows a high success rate. If patient recruitment is adequate, this intervention can be performed on an outpatient basis.

[Differential diagnosis of tailgut cyst in the case of a rectal carcinoma with presacral mass]. / Differentialdiagnose Tailgut-Zyste bei einem Rektumkarzinom mit präsakraler Raumforderung.

Cystic masses of various different origins and degrees of malignancy occur in the presacral space. Apart from benign, malignant and acute inflammatory masses, the benign lesions include a group of cystic structures to which the dysgenetic cysts belong. The tailgut cyst is a relatively rare type of gastrointestinal origin from this group. We present the case of a stenosing rectal carcinoma in which a presacral mass was additionally found, which did not get smaller compared to the rectal tumour during combined preoperative radiochemotherapy, with a lymphoma being suspected. After extirpation of the tumour, histopathological processing revealed a stenosing rectal carcinoma with an adjacent dysgenetic lesion--a tailgut cyst. Although dysgenetic lesions are rare as presacral masses, this must also be taken into account as a differential diagnosis in the various imaging procedures such as endosonography, CT and MRT when a rectal carcinoma is present.