Active clinical trials for "Rectal Neoplasms"

The purpose of the study is to compare self-reported health related quality of life after two different operating techniques for low rectal cancer operated by rectal amputation, using a specific and detailed questionnaire. The population has been operated over a 6 year period in one university hospital.

Prospective Assessment of Symptoms and Quality of Life in Rectal Cancer Patients Receiving Chemo-Radiotherapy.

Preoperative chemoradiation therapy is the preferred initial treatment option for distal rectal cancers. However, assessing tumor response to preoperative chemoradiation therapy remains a challenge to the colorectal surgeon, especially when determining if there is a complete response, observed in more than 10% of cases. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of the PET/CT in assessing distal rectal tumor response to preoperative chemoradiation therapy.

The proposed study is an observational, prospective, multicenter study of patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy for medium-low rectal cancer. Recently the investigators have published the findings of a multicenter Italian phase II study showing that the rate of local recurrence, with a 3 year follow-up, is less than 5% in patients with baseline T2-3 mid-low rectal cancer who, after preoperative chemoradiotherapy (pCRT), showed a major clinical response and underwent a transanal local excision. Based on these results, an organ-sparing approach for patients showing a major clinical response is feasible without reducing the good results obtained with the standard treatment. While a phase III trial is the best way to compare the standard treatment with the organ-sparing approach (local excision or wait-and-see) it is impracticable and likely unethical. An observational study is therefore one of the best way to evaluate the impact that an organ-sparing approach may have on oncological outcomes, quality of life, and bowel function for patients with rectal cancer who, after a pCRT, show a clinical major/complete response. This phase II trial is designed to test the hypothesis that conservative treatments, in patients with low-mid rectal cancer who undergo a major or complete clinical response after neoadjuvant treatment, will be safe and effective compared to standard surgery. The investigators will compare rectum-sparing approaches to standard surgery, firstly in terms of rate of organ preservation at 2 years. Additionally they will compare survival outcomes (DFS, OS), stoma rates, clinical and tumor factors related to pathological complete response, correlation between major and complete clinical response. To add value, the investigators will measure QoL in patients treated with rectum-sparing approaches in comparison to patients treated with standard surgery (TME or abdomino-perineal amputation). Rectum-sparing approach can be considered clinically acceptable if percentage of conservation of the rectum at two years is not less than 50%. The collected data on 164 patients who underwent "rectum-sparing" allow to test the hypothesis that the rectum is preserved in 60% of patients with 80% power (exact binomial test for proportions, alpha = 5 %, 1 tail) and the study will be considered positive if it obtains a frequency of conservation of the rectum of not less than 87 cases. The analysis results will be reported in accordance with STROBE guidelines (von Elm et al., 2008). For all analyzes, continuous variables are described using the mean and standard deviation of position and appropriate measures when appropriate. Categorical variables will be described using the contingency tables.

Rectal cancer, comprised of 30% of overall colorectal cancer cohort, is one of the leading cancers of Taiwan. In patients with advanced disease, the standard of care is concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) before surgery. After CCRT, the abscopal effect, a phenomenon that localized radiation not only destroys local tumor but also inhibits the growth of tumor at the remote site, has been observed. This effect is believed to be associated with tumor immune response. In addition, other immune checkpoint molecules, such as Programmed cell death-1(PD-1), Programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1), and Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Associated Protein 4 (CTLA-4), have been reported associated with therapeutic outcome. However, after CCRT, more than 50% of patients were still either having persistent disease or developed distant metastasis. To improve therapeutic outcome of patients with rectal cancer, this project, thus, aims at exploring the evolution of factors that may affect the abscopal effect and immune checkpoint functions in tissues and in blood before and after CCRT.

The TENTACLE: Rectum study is a multinational retrospective cohort study that includes patients with anastomotic leakage after rectal cancer resection. The study aims to develop an anastomotic leakage severity score and to evaluate the efficacy of different treatments of anastomotic leakage.

Backgrounds: A multicenter randomized phase III trial (NCT02605265) proved that adding irinotecan guided by UGT1A1 to capecitabine-based neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy significantly increases complete tumor response. The treatment toxicities were increased but tolerable. Purposes: This study aims to identify the predictive biomarkers (from patients' tumor biopsy samples and peripheral blood samples before neoadjuvant therapy) for predicting the response and toxicities to neoadjuvant therapy to stratify patients and optimize treatment strategy.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether injection of carbon nanoparticle as a lymph node tracer before neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy in rectal cancer can increase lymph node yield after surgery compared which do not inject.

There are several types of circulating DNA: DNA from patient's existing cells, foetal DNA in the case of pregnant woman, and tumoral DNA in the case of patients with cancer. These circulating tumoral DNA (ctDNA) can be obtained from a blood test called liquid biopsy and be detected by the latest generation of very high throughput sequencers with the Massive Parallel Sequencing technique (MPS). This study focus on using this technique on breast and colorectal cancers in which no analysis of CNV (tumor origin marker) with this technique has been performed yet. It is a prospective, pilot, monocentric, feasibility study on genomic profile. The study aim is to show the possibility to realize in a reproductive way a molecular karyotype on ctDNA with the MPS approach from a liquid biopsy taken from patients with cancer and to compare this profile with the one obtained by CGH array (Comparative Genomic Hybridization) from primitive tumor.

Anastomotic failure (AF), including anastomotic leakage (AL), increases morbidity and mortality after colorectal cancer (CRC) resection. An inadequate perfusion of the anastomosis or technical stapling defects may contribute to AF. Several studies evaluated the singular use of intraoperative near infrared (NIR) indocyanine green (ICG)-induced fluorescence angiography (FA) and air leak testing to assess the integrity and the perfusion levels of the colorectal anastomosis. So far, a combined use of these methodologies, although acknowledged has not yet been tested as an indicator of postoperative AF or of intra-operative anastomotic repair in a prospective setting. This study aims to implement the intraoperative anastomotic assessment in a prospective series of patients undergoing rectal resection plus primary anastomosis for rectal cancer with or without ostomy, using a semi-quantitative check of 4 items (4-check). The procedure will include NIR-ICG-induced FA (to assess perfusion), air leak test and evaluation of the anastomotic donuts (to assess for the presence of technical defects). Included patients will be those scheduled for elective rectal resection with total or partial mesorectal excision and primary colo-rectal anastomosis with/or without protective ostomy. Primary outcomes will be the overall incidence of intra-operative anastomotic repair and the rate of post-operative AF. Secondary outcomes will be the overall incidence of adverse events and serious complications, the estimation of costs and resources, the operative time, hospitalization and post-operative measurement of inflammatory markers.