T3N0 rectal cancer: radiation for all?

The optimal oncologic management for patients with T3N0 rectal cancer is currently controversial. Patients with pathologic T3N0 disease may have an "intermediate" risk of disease recurrence, suggesting that perhaps trimodality therapy may not be indicated for all patients. Adverse prognostic features, including a greater depth of perirectal fat invasion, poor tumor differentiation, the presence of lymphovascular invasion, abnormally elevated pretreatment carcinoembryonic antigen levels (>5 ng/mL), circumferential margin involvement, and a low-lying position may identify T3N0 patients at high risk for local recurrence who may benefit from the addition of radiation therapy. However, recent randomized data suggest an improvement in local control and disease-free survival with preoperative radiation therapy compared with selective postoperative radiation therapy in all patient subgroups, arguing in favor of routine preoperative therapy. Additionally, rates of clinical understaging may exceed 20%, representing the percentage of patients who would require the delivery of postoperative radiotherapy with its associated sequelae. Future prospective randomized studies of T3N0 patients with upfront stratification by known prognostic factors and studies evaluating the molecular profile of rectal cancers hold the promise of better classifying patients at high risk of local and systemic recurrence, and thus, in need of adjuvant radiation and chemotherapy. Published by Elsevier Inc.