Short- and long-course rectal RT produced similar patient-reported outcomes by two years
Long-course chemoradiation caused greater preoperative symptom burden, but patient-reported bowel, urinary and overall outcomes converged after surgery.
Tag
rectal
High-dose exposure to the IAS–puborectalis complex tracked with LARS after rectal radiotherapy
Postoperative bowel dysfunction correlated most strongly with high-dose exposure to the internal anal sphincter and puborectalis complex.
Endorectal HDR brachytherapy produced 80% initial response in frail rectal cancer
Short-course EBRT plus endorectal HDR brachytherapy produced 80% cCR/ncCR, but grade 3 late rectal toxicity occurred in 27%.
ReCOG identifies major heterogeneity across pelvic re-irradiation trials
Nine prospective rectal and anal re-irradiation trials varied widely in dose, margins, cumulative-dose methods, organs at risk, and PRO reporting.
Baseline lymphocyte count predicted severe lymphopenia better than dosimetry in rectal cancer
Severe lymphopenia occurred in 44%, while baseline and week-2 lymphocyte counts outperformed 600 dosimetric variables for risk prediction.
Organ preservation after immunotherapy-based TNT was linked to better bowel function
Organ preservation after immunotherapy-based TNT was associated with better quality of life and markedly lower risk of major bowel dysfunction than TME.
Updated AI auto-contouring cut rectal contouring time by 59%
Second-generation AI reduced rectal radiotherapy contouring time from 41 to 17 minutes while improving accuracy and consistency.
Long-course chemoradiotherapy improved early organ preservation in STAR-TREC
Twelve-month TME-free survival was 78.5% with long-course chemoradiotherapy versus 60.6% with short-course radiotherapy in early rectal cancer.
Early response-adapted TNT preserved the rectum in a minority of selected patients
Two-year sustained complete response was 36% after short-course RT and response-adapted FOLFOX4, while near-complete responses frequently regrew.
Immune-rich rectal tumors responded better to neoadjuvant radiotherapy than stromal-rich tumors
Responsive rectal tumors showed greater cytotoxic immune infiltration, while poor responders were enriched for stromal, EMT and oncogenic pathways.
Short-course radiotherapy may be a stronger immunotherapy partner in rectal cancer
Recent trials report 40–61% pathologic complete response with short-course radiotherapy plus immunotherapy, but mature comparative outcomes remain unavailable.
Total neoadjuvant therapy is now central to high-risk rectal cancer and organ preservation
Total neoadjuvant therapy is now central to high-risk rectal cancer and organ preservation
Bowel dose predicted acute diarrhea after both RAPIDO neoadjuvant strategies
Larger irradiated bowel volumes predicted acute diarrhea after both short-course total neoadjuvant treatment and chemoradiation, although discrimination was modest.
THUNDER-2 used early tumor regression to guide adaptive rectal cancer dose escalation
ERI-guided escalation to 60.1 Gy produced a 21.9% complete response rate in patients predicted to respond poorly.
Pelvic bone marrow dose predicted hematologic toxicity during rectal chemoradiotherapy
Mean pelvic marrow dose above approximately 24 Gy and V40 above 13% identified higher hematologic toxicity risk during rectal chemoradiotherapy.