Publications by authors named "A Habr-Gama"
Article Synopsis
- Organ preservation through the Watch and Wait (WW) approach in rectal cancer patients shows promise but poses a risk of local regrowth (LR), leading to higher rates of distant metastases (DM) compared to traditional surgery (TME).
- A study comparing 508 LR patients managed by WW and 893 near-complete pathologic response (nPCR) patients after TME found a significantly higher DM rate in the LR group (22.8% vs. 10.2%).
- The research concluded that patients with LR have poorer 3-year DM-free survival (75% vs. 87%) and highlight that leaving a primary undetectable tumor can result in worse overall outcomes.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to evaluate the Immunoscore (IS) as a potential biomarker for patients with rectal cancer managed by a watch-and-wait (W&W) strategy, focusing on predicting recurrence after treatment.
- It involved 249 patients and analyzed the presence of specific immune cells in pre-treatment biopsies, finding that higher IS scores were associated with better 5-year recurrence-free rates.
- The results indicate that IS is a strong independent predictor of time to recurrence and improves the accuracy of clinical models in assessing patient outcomes.
Background: A proportion of rectal cancer patients who achieve a clinical complete response may develop local regrowth. Although salvage appears to provide appropriate local control, the risk of distant metastases is less known.
Objective: To compare the risk of distant metastases between patients who achieve a clinical complete response (watch-and-wait strategy) and subsequent local regrowth and patients managed by surgery after chemoradiation.
Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiation(nCRT) has been considered the preferred initial treatment strategy for distal rectal cancer. Advantages of this approach include improved local control after radical surgery but also the opportunity for organ preserving strategies (Watch and Wait-WW). Consolidation chemotherapy(cCT) regimens using fluoropyrimidine-based with or without oxalipatin following nCRT have demonstrated to increase complete response and organ preservation rates among these patients.
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