Does Completeness of the Mesorectal Excision Still Correlate with Local Recurrence?

BACKGROUND: Total mesorectal excision is the standard surgical procedure for rectal cancer treatment. Several studies have shown a close correlation between the prognosis of patients with rectal cancer and the completeness of the mesorectal specimen. OBJECTIVE: To assess the correlation between macroscopic assessment of mesorectal excision and long-term oncological outcomes. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of an Institutional Review Board-approved database. SETTINGS: Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS: Patients with rectal cancer who were operated on between March 2016 and October 2019 were classified into 3 groups based on the mesorectal specimen quality: complete, near complete, and incomplete. Only patients with a follow-up of ≥2 years and without signs of preoperative distant disease were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Relationship between total mesorectal excision and local and distant recurrence rates in patients with rectal cancer. RESULTS: A total of 124 patients (35.5% females) were included in the analysis, with a mean age of 58.1 (SD 12) years and a mean BMI of 26.4 (SD 4.59) kg/m². Neoadjuvant chemoradiation was administered to 71% of patients, whereas 13.7% received total neoadjuvant therapy. Restorative procedures were performed in 107 patients (86.3%), whereas 17 patients (13.7%) underwent abdominoperineal resection. The majority of mesorectal excision specimens (87.09%) were complete or near complete. Local recurrence rates were 6.3% (1/16) in the incomplete and 7.4% (8/108) in the complete/near complete group (p = 0.86). Metachronous distant metastases occurred in 6 patients (37.5%) in the incomplete group and in 24 patients (22.2%) in the complete/near complete group (p = 0.18). Thus, specimen quality did not appear to impact disease-free survival. LIMITATIONS: Retrospective, single-center study with relatively short follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: In the era of a multidisciplinary approach and extensive use of neoadjuvant therapy, macroscopic completeness of total mesorectal excision may not be as valuable a prognosticator as in the past. Larger studies with longer follow-ups are needed to clarify these preliminary findings.