The Spanish Association of Surgeons (AEC) has awarded the researcher Xavier Serra el National Surgery Award 2023 for his leadership a theTAU-TEM study, published in the distinguished scientific journal Annals of Oncology. The award recognizes the best surgery work published in 2022 in national or foreign journals.
Serra, coordinator of the Surgery and Interventional Procedures research area and head of the colorectal surgery group at the Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT), has collected the award in the framework of the XXIV National Surgery Meeting held in Alicante last October 26.
TAU-TEM, a study with promising results
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in the population. In fact, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), it is the third most common type of cancer in the world and the second cause of death related to this disease. The treatment applied in most cases, however, consists of very aggressive surgery which leads to severe and often permanent consequences for the patients' quality of life.
It is born in this context TAU-TEM, a study led by Xavier Serra and the colorectal surgery group of the I3PT which has shown that there is a much less invasive alternative with very promising results. Specifically, the study has shown that subjecting the patient to a local chemo-radiotherapy treatment and subsequently a minimal local surgery improves morbidity and avoids permanent sequelae.
The project started in 2011 and, since then, has been carried out in 17 hospitals in the territory Spanish and has had 173 patients which, randomly, have undergone either the usual treatment or the innovative treatment.
Currently, the study is in the phase of evaluating the quality of life and the definitive oncological results of the patients in the two treatments in order to conclude if it is possible to make a change in surgical strategy and thus avoid the traditional surgery that causes so many side effects and harm to the affected people.
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