A total of 24% of patients referred for LCCRT at SCGH achieved cCR, and this was sustained in 84%. Sixteen percent of W&W patients had suspected local regrowth. Our surveillance protocol detected regrowth early, and surgical salvage was always possible. Twenty percent of patients undergoing surgery having pCR despite not having cCR highlights the difficulty of avoiding TME in all patients who have a pCR but suggests optimisations of our practice are possible. We propose a reduction in the length and intensity of our current protocol.
Finlay et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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