An I3PT study opens the door to curing early-stage rectal cancer while preserving the organ

• The research, published in the journal JAMA Surgery, shows that removing the rectum is not necessary in early stages of the disease. By applying a combination of chemoradiotherapy and minimally invasive surgery, the same oncological efficacy can be achieved as with radical surgery
• This new strategy represents a paradigm shift in the approach to rectal cancer in its early stages, with a major impact on the patient's quality of life, as the severe consequences of current treatment are avoided.

A multicenter study led by the Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT) has shown that an innovative treatment for early rectal cancer, which combines local chemo-radiotherapy followed by minimally invasive local surgery, achieves highly favorable outcomes.

The clinical trial, under the name TAUTEM and published in JAMA Surgery —the world's most prestigious journal in the field of surgery—has shown that the proposed treatment achieves a significant improvement in morbidity, equal survival rates, as well as avoid permanent side effects that current treatments cause based on rectal extraction.

The TAUTEM study has been led by surgeon and researcher Xavier Serra-Aracil and involved 17 hospitals and 173 patients, making it the most relevant study of its kind to dateAccording to Serra-Aracil, “This change in strategy is highly significant given that it is a minimally invasive treatment that preserves the rectum in most early-stage cancer patients, thus avoiding the severe consequences of radical surgery, which influence the loss of quality of life, the need to wear intestinal bags and, especially in the case of men, the associated sexual dysfunctions”.

“The impact is very significant: we maintain 90% long-term cure rates without having to remove the organ", he says. "It's a paradigm shift in the approach to rectal cancer in the early stages, which represents a decisive step towards updating international clinical guidelines and improving the quality of life of thousands of patients."

Global increase in colorectal cancer detection

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer-related death among among people over 50. In 2020, 1,9 million new cases were diagnosed and nearly 935.000 deaths from this type of tumor occurred. However, if detected at an early stage, it is highly treatable and has a high cure rate.

Editorial recognition of the TAUTEM study

Renowned surgeons have highlighted the relevance of the clinical trial led by Serra-Aracil in the editorial of JAMA SurgeryThe authors congratulate the researcher “for expanding the scientific evidence supporting surgical de-intensification in rectal cancer,” and emphasize that this new approach may “lead to personalized medicine in these cases, combining safety oncological and quality of life".

The TAUTEM study began in 2009 and in 2023 the first results of this new treatment strategy were published. At that time, the scientific evidence that had been observed in the short term, that is, in the first six months after the intervention, was provided. At that time, “the conclusions presented at the ASCO congress and published in the journal Annals of Oncology", already predicted the long-term results, which we have now just confirmed with this new publication," concludes the researcher.