부산대학교 도서관

This article, published in the journal Endoscopy, explores the risk of occult lymph node metastasis in pT2 rectal cancer (RC). The study analyzes data from two large Dutch multicenter retrospective registries and focuses on patients with pT2 RC who were node-negative on preoperative imaging and underwent surgery without neoadjuvant therapy between 2012 and 2020. The primary outcome of the study is the rate of lymph node metastasis in pT2 RC without the presence of histological risk factors, such as lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and poor differentiation (PD). The study finds that the absence of LVI and PD is associated with a relatively low risk of lymph node metastasis in patients with pT2 RC, suggesting the potential for a low-risk group that may not require completion total mesorectal excision (TME). However, further research is needed to accurately identify this group. [Extracted from the article]