Minimally Invasive and Open Surgery in Colon Cancer Show Similar Outcomes

Painful general surgery and lengthy healing times could be unnecessary when treating colorectal cancer patients, according to a new review of studies.

Researchers at Namsos Hospital (Norway) searched The Cochrane library, EMBASE, Pubmed, and CancerLit for published and unpublished randomized controlled trials, and conducted a meta-analysis of the combined results of 12 trials involving 3,346 patients; five studies took place in the United States; the others occurred in China, Taiwan, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The reviewers compared outcomes of laparoscopic and open surgeries used in colorectal cancer treatment. The reviewers also evaluated the incidence of adhesions bands of scar tissue that form between organs and tissue and hernias at the incision site, two common complications after colorectal cancer surgery.

The study results found no significant differences between laparoscopic and open surgery in the occurrence of incisional hernias or the number of repeat operations for adhesions. Port-site metastases and wound recurrences were rare and no differences in occurrence after laparoscopic and open surgery were observed; cancer-related mortality at maximum follow-up was similar after laparoscopic and open surgery. No significant difference in tumor recurrence after laparoscopic and open surgery for colon cancer was observed. In colon cancer patients, no significant differences in overall mortality were found. The review was published in the May 2008 issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration (Oxford, United Kingdom), an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care.

"For a long time, many surgeons have been afraid that laparoscopy might impair survival in colorectal cancer patients and cause metastases in the skin openings that are used to insert the instruments, but this has proven not to be the case,” said lead author Esther Kuhry, M.D., a general surgery resident at Namsos.


Related Links:
Namsos Hospital
The Cochrane Collaboration