Post-Operative Functional Outcomes in Early Age Onset Rectal Cancer

REACCT Collaborative, Lauren V. O’Connell, Alexandra M. Zaborowski, Ahmed Abdile, Michel Adamina, Felix Aigner, Laura d’Allens, Caterina Allmer, Andrea Álvarez, Rocio Anula, Mihailo Andric, Sam Atallah Simon Bach, Miklosh Bala, Marie Barussaud, Augustinas Bausys, Andrew Beggs, Felipe Bellolio, Melissa-Rose Bennett, Vicki Bevan, Sebastiano Biondo, Gabriele Bislenghi, Marc Bludau, Carl Brown, Christiane Bruns, Daniel D. Buchanan, Pamela Buchwald, Jacobus W.A. Burger, Nikita Burlov, Michela Campanelli, Maylis Capdepont, Michele Carvello, Hwee-Hoon Chew, Dimitri Christoforidis, David Clark, Marta Climent, Rowan Collinson, Kyle G. Cologne, Tomas Contreras, Roland Croner, Ian R. Daniels, Giovanni Dapri, Justin Davies, Paolo Delrio, Quentin Denost, Michael Deutsch, Andre Dias, André D’Hoore, Evgeniy Drozdov, Daniel Duek, Malcolm Dunlop, Adam Dziki, Aleksandra Edmundson, Sergey Efetov, Alaa El-Hussuna, Brodie Elliott, Sameh Emile, Eloy Espin-Basany, Martyn Evans, Seraina Faes, Omar Faiz, Nuno Figueiredo, Fergal Fleming, Caterina Foppa, George Fowler, Matteo Frasson, Tim Forgan, Frank Frizelle, Shamil Gadaev, Jose Gellona, Tamara Glyn, Barisic Goran, Emma Greenwood, Marianne G. Guren, Stephanie Guillon, Ida Gutlic, Dieter Hahnloser, Heather Hampel, Ann Hanly, Hirotoshi Hasegawa, Lene Hjerrild Iversen, Andrew Hill, James Hill, Jiri Hoch, Roel Hompes, Luis Hurtado, Fabiano Iaquinandi, Ugne Imbrasaite, Rumana Islam, Mehrenah D Jafari, Andrea Jiménez Salido, Marta Jiménez-Toscano, Yukihide Kanemitsu, Aleksei Karachun, Ahmer A. Karimuddin, Deborah S. Keller, Justin Kelly, Rory Kennelly, Gleb Khrykov, Petr Kocian, Cherry Koh, Neils Kok, Katrina A. Knight, Joep Knol, Christos Kontovounisios, Hartwig Korner, Zoran Krivokapic, Irmgard Kronberger, Hidde Maarten Kroon, Marius Kryzauskas, Said Kural, Miranda Kusters, Zaher Lakkis, Timur Lankov, David Larson, György Lázár, Kai-Yin Lee, Suk Hwan Lee, Jérémie H. Lefèvre, Anna Lepisto, Christopher Lieu, Lynette Loi, Craig Lynch, Helene Maillou-Martinaud, Annalisa Maroli, Sean T. Martin, Anna Martling, Klaus E. Matzel, Julio Mayol, Frank McDermott, Guillaume Meurette, Monica Millan, Martin Mitteregger, Andrei Moiseenko, John RT. Monson, Stefan Morarasu, Konosuke Moritani, Gabriela Möslein, Martino Munini, Caio Nahas, Sergio Nahas, Ionut Negoi, Anastasia Novikova, Misael Ocares, Koji Okabayashi, Alexandra Olkina, Luis Oñate-Ocaña, Jaime Otero, Cihan Ozen, Ugo Pace, Guilherme Pagin São Julião, Lidiia Panaiotti, Yves Panis, Demetris Papamichael, Swati Patel, Juan Carlos Patrón Uriburu, Sze-Lin Peng, Miguel Pera, Rodrigo O. Perez, Alexei Petrov, Frank Pfeffer, Terry P. Phang, Tomas Poskus, Heather Pringle, David Proud, Ivana Raguz, Nuno Rama, Shahnawaz Rasheed, Manoj J. Raval, Daniela Rega, Christoph Reissfelder, Juan Carlos Reyes Meneses, Frederic Ris, Stefan Riss, Homero Rodriguez-Zentner, Campbell S Roxburgh, Avanish Saklani, Tarik Sammour, Deborah Saraste, Martin Schneider, Ryo Seishima, Aleksandar Sekulic, Toni Seppala, Kieran Sheahan, Alexandra Shlomina, Guiseppe Sica, Tongplaew Singnomklao, Leandro Siragusa, Neil Smart, Alejandro Solis-Peña, Antonino Spinelli, Roxane D. Staiger, Michael J. Stamos, Scott Steele, Ker-Kan Tan, Pieter J Tanis, Paris Tekkis, Biniam Teklay, Sabrina Tengku, Petr Tsarkov, Matthias Turina, Alexis Ulrich, Bruna B. Vailati, Meike van Harten, Cornelis Verhoef, Satish Warrier, Steven Wexner, Benjamin A. Weinberg, Cameron Wells, Albert Wolthuis, Evangelos Xynos, Nancy You, Alexander Zakharenko, Justino Zeballos, Youzhi Zhou, Des C. Winter

Impairment of bowel, urogenital and fertility-related function in patients treated for rectal cancer is common. While the rate of rectal cancer in the young (<50 years) is rising, there is little data on functional outcomes in this group. The REACCT international collaborative database was reviewed and data on eligible patients analysed. Inclusion criteria comprised patients with a histologically confirmed rectal cancer, <50 years of age at time of diagnosis and with documented follow-up including functional outcomes. A total of 1428 (n=1428) patients met the eligibility criteria and were included in the final analysis. Metastatic disease was present at diagnosis in 13%. Of these, 40% received neoadjuvant therapy and 50% adjuvant chemotherapy. The incidence of post-operative major morbidity was 10%. A defunctioning stoma was placed for 621 patients (43%); 534 of these proceeded to elective restoration of bowel continuity. The median follow-up time was 42 months. Of this cohort, a total of 415 (29%) reported persistent impairment of functional outcomes, the most frequent of which was bowel dysfunction (16%), followed by bladder dysfunction (7%), sexual dysfunction (4.5%) and infertility (1%). A substantial proportion of patients with early-onset rectal cancer who undergo surgery report persistent impairment of functional status. Patients should be involved in the discussion regarding their treatment options and potential impact on quality of life. Functional outcomes should be routinely recorded as part of follow up alongside oncological parameters.