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Simple endoscopic scoring of patients with rectal cancer after concurrent chemoradiation therapy
Background
Neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is an effective treatment option for patients with rectal cancer. In this study, we investigated the clinical efficacy of simple endoscopic scoring of patients with rectal cancer after CCRT.
Methods
Between July 2008 and October 2015, medical records including endoscopic imaging from 41 patients with rectal cancer who received CCRT were retrospectively reviewed. Two expert gastroenterologists reviewed the endoscopic images and assigned scores from 0–3 according to post-CCRT findings. The scoring criteria were as follows: 0=no ulcer; 1=clean-based ulcer without marginal elevation; 2=clean-based ulcer with marginal elevation; 3=non-clean-based ulcer. We evaluated image scores to predict long-term outcomes using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models.
Results
The median follow-up duration was 55 months (interquartile range: 35–76). Patients with a low score (≤2) had a 17.2% recurrence rate, whereas patients with a high score (3) had a 50.0% recurrence rate. Patients with a low score had longer disease-free survival (DFS) than those with a high score in log-rank test (p=0.026). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, a high score was a significant predictor of poor DFS in patients with rectal cancer after CCRT treatment (hazard ratio=4.89, 95% confidence interval: 1.11–21.50, p=0.036).
Conclusions
This simple endoscopic scoring approach is helpful for predicting prognosis of patients with rectal cancer after treatment with CCRT.
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosures
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
