Similar Outcomes for Minimally Invasive, Open Surgery in Colon Cancer
Large, open incisions that cause pain and require lengthy healing times might be unnecessary to treat colorectal cancer patients successfully, according to a new review of studies.
“For a long time, many surgeons have been afraid that laparoscopy might impair survival in colorectal cancer patients and cause metastases in the skin openings that are used to insert the instruments, but this has proven not to be the case,” said lead reviewer Esther Kuhry, M.D., a general surgery resident at Namsos Hospital in Norway.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the United States. According to the National Cancer Institute, there will be 148,810 new diagnoses of colorectal cancer in 2008.