Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center posted on LinkedIn:
“New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) finds some people facing rectal cancer can safely avoid surgery, which improves their quality of life.
The “watch-and-wait” approach is used with people who have local rectal tumors. Chemotherapy and radiation are used to shrink the tumor, and if it disappears completely, the patient is carefully monitored to make sure the tumor doesn’t regrow.
MSK has been studying the watch-and-wait approach since the early 2000s and has greatly refined who is most likely to benefit. ‘I have patients who come back to see me 10 years or more after we preserved their rectum by not doing surgery,’ says MSK colorectal cancer surgeon Dr. Garcia-Aguilar. ‘They are very happy and grateful.’
Learn more about how MSK is using innovative approaches to preserve the quality of life for rectal cancer patients.”
