The abdominoperineal resection itself is associated with an adverse outcome: the European experience based on a pooled analysis of five European randomised clinical trials on rectal cancer.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify factors associated with the decision to perform an abdominoperineal resection (APR) and to assess if these factors or the surgical procedure itself is associated with circumferential resection margin (CRM) involvement, local recurrence (LR), overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS).

Patients And Methods: The Swedish Rectal Cancer Trial (SRCT), TME trial, CAO/ARO/AIO-94 trial, EORTC 22921 trial and Polish Rectal Cancer Trial (PRCT) were pooled. A propensity score was calculated, which indicated the predicted probability of undergoing an APR given gender, age and distance, and used in the multivariate analyses.

Results: An APR procedure was associated with an increased risk of CRM involvement [odd ratio (OR) 2.52, p<0.001], increased LR rate [hazard ratio (HR) 1.53, p=0.001] and decreased CSS rate (HR 1.31, p=0.002), whereas the propensity score was not.

Conclusion: The results suggest that the APR procedure itself is a significant predictor for non-radical resections and increased risk of LR and death due to cancer for patients with advanced rectal cancer.