Murphy, Jamie

AbstractAimSurgery aims to prevent cancer‐related morbidity for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) associated dysplasia. The literature varies widely regarding the likelihood of dysplastic progression to higher grades of dysplasia or cancer. The aim of this study was to characterize the likelihood of the development of colorectal cancer (CRC) of patients with UC‐associated dysplasia who chose to defer surgery.MethodA retrospective review was carried out of patients undergoing surgery for UC at the Mayo Clinic, who were diagnosed to have dysplasia between August 1993 and July 2012. The relationships between grade of dysplasia, time to surgery and the detection of unsuspected carcinoma were investigated.ResultsIn all, 175 patients underwent surgery at a median of 4.9 (interquartile range 2.5–8.9) months after a diagnosis of dysplasia. Their median age was 52 (interquartile range 43−59) years. An initial diagnosis of indeterminate dysplasia was not associated with CRC [0/23; 17.7 (8.1−29.6) months]. Thirty‐six patients who had an initial diagnosis of dysplasia progressed from indeterminate to low‐grade dysplasia [24.2 (11.0−30.4) months]. Low‐grade dysplasia was associated with a 2% (1/56; T2N0M0) risk of CRC when present in random surveillance biopsies and a 3% (2/61; T1N0M0, T4N0M0) risk if detected in endoscopically visible lesions [7.4 (5.2−33.3) months]. Eighteen patients progressed from indeterminate to high‐grade dysplasia [19.1 (9.2−133.9) months]. Seventeen patients progressed from low to high‐grade dysplasia [11.0 (5.8−30.1) months]. None of the patients with high‐grade dysplasia (0/35) progressed to CRC [4.5 (1.7−9.9) months].ConclusionDysplasia was associated with a low incidence of node negative CRC if surgery was deferred for up to 5 years. These findings may help inform the decision‐making process for asymptomatic patients who are having to decide between intensive surveillance or surgery for UC‐associated dysplasia.

AbstractExtended lymphadenectomy has gained considerable attention as an adjunct to conventional colon cancer surgery with the hope that it may potentially decrease local recurrence rates and improve cancer‐specific outcome measures. Despite the enthusiasm surrounding these techniques, it is difficult to establish any additional survival benefit associated with more comprehensive lymphadenectomy strategies when these are performed in addition to conventional colon cancer surgery. Furthermore, these techniques remain unproven by large randomized clinical trials. The appropriate indications for performing extended lymphadenectomy also remain unclear, and there is a lack of standardization with regard to surgical technique. Moreover, there are a number of confounding factors that frequently receive little attention when oncological outcome measures are reported following extended lymphadenectomy in the setting of colon cancer. The purpose of this review is to outline these confounding issues and discuss their impact on reports describing cancer‐specific outcome measures following the use of extended lymphadenectomy techniques. Furthermore, this review proposes that in light of the available published evidence, the role of radical lymphadenectomy is currently unproven, with large randomized clinical trials required in the future to determine whether there is a survival benefit for colon cancer patients.