Fluorescence-guided mesorectal nodes harvesting associated with local excision for early rectal cancer: technical notes.

Background: The spread of colorectal cancer screening has increased the percentage of patients with early-stage rectal cancer; at least 30% of patients are diagnosed with a clinical-stage cT1 or pT1 after endoscopic excision. In this subgroup of patients, the real advantage of total mesorectal excision (TME) over local excision (LE) is the ability to remove mesorectal nodes, which are metastatic in less than 20% of cases.

Method: To solve the unmet need for accurate nodal staging in patients with cT0/cT1, cN0 rectal cancer, we designed a pilot study that associates LE with mesorectal fluorescence-guided nodal sampling.