Correction to: Laparoscopic and open surgery in rectal cancer patients in Germany: short and long-term results of a large 10-year population-based cohort.

The article, "Laparoscopic and open surgery in rectal cancer patients in Germany: short and long­term results of a large 10-year population-based cohort," written by Valentin Schnitzbauer, Michael Gerken, Stefan Benz, Vinzenz Völkel,, Teresa Draeger, Alois Fürst, and Monika Klinkhammer-Schalke was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 30 May 2019 without open access. With the author(s)' decision to opt for Open Choice the copyright of the article changed on September 18, 2019 to © The Author(s) [Year] and the article is forthwith distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made.

Laparoscopic and open surgery in rectal cancer patients in Germany: short and long-term results of a large 10-year population-based cohort.

BACKGROUND: Rectal cancer is frequent in Germany and worldwide. Several studies have assessed laparoscopic surgery as a treatment option and most have shown favorable results. However, long-term oncologic safety remains a controversial issue. METHODS: The current dataset derives from 30 clinical cancer registries in Germany and includes 16,378 patients diagnosed with rectal cancer between 2007 and 2016. Outcomes were 90-day mortality, overall survival (OS), local recurrence-free survival (RFS) and relative survival of patients treated with either open or laparoscopic surgery. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate factors that affected the probability of a patient undergoing laparoscopic surgery as well as to evaluate short-term mortality. OS and RFS were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier plots and multivariable Cox regression conducted separately for UICC stages I-III, tumor location, and sex as well as by propensity score matching followed by univariable and multivariable survival analysis. RESULTS: Of 16,378 patients, 4540 (27.7%) underwent laparoscopic surgery, a trend which increased during the observation period. Patients undergoing laparoscopy attained better results for 90-day mortality (odds ratio, OR 0.658, 95% confidence interval, CI 0.526-0.822). The 5-year OS rate in the laparoscopic group was 82.6%, vs. 76.6% in the open surgery group, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.819 in multivariable Cox regression (95% CI 0.747-0.899, p < 0.001). The laparoscopic group showed a better 5-year RFS, with 81.8 vs. 74.3% and HR 0.770 (95% CI 0.705-0.842, p < 0.001). The 5-year relative survival rates were also in favor of laparoscopy, with 93.1 vs. 88.4% (p = 0.012). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer can be performed safely and, according to this study, is associated with an oncological outcome superior to that of the open procedure. Therefore, in the absence of individual contraindications, it should be considered as a standard approach.

Laparoscopic and open resection of rectal cancer-is age an effect modifier for short- and long-term survival?

INTRODUCTION: Rectal cancer is a frequently diagnosed tumor worldwide. Various studies have shown the noninferiority or even slight superiority of laparoscopic resection. However, there is no clear recommendation on whether age should influence the choice of surgical approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study compared outcomes of laparoscopic and open surgery in rectal cancer patients. Perioperative mortality and 5-year overall, relative, and recurrence-free survival rates were analyzed separately for three age groups. Data originate from 30 regional German cancer registries that cover approximately one quarter of the German population. All primary nonmetastatic rectal adenocarcinoma cases with surgery between 2005 and 2014 were eligible for inclusion. To compare survival rates, Kaplan-Meier analysis, a relative survival model, and multivariable Cox regression were used; a sensitivity analysis assessed bias by exclusion. RESULTS: Ten thousand seven hundred fifty-four patients were included in the analysis. The mean laparoscopy rate was 23.0% and increased over time. Analysis of 30-day postoperative mortality rates revealed advantages for laparoscopically treated patients, although the significance level was not reached in any age group. Regarding 5-year overall survival, laparoscopy generally seems to be the superior approach, whereas for recurrence-free survival, an age-dependent gradient in effect size was observed: with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.703 for laparoscopy, patients under 60 years benefitted more from the minimally invasive approach than older patients (septuagenarians, HR 0.923). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopy shows similar results to the open approach in terms of postoperative survival in all age groups. Concerning long-term outcomes, younger patients benefitted most from the minimally invasive approach.

Surgical treatment of rectal cancer patients aged 80 years and older-a German nationwide analysis comparing short- and long-term survival after laparoscopic and open tumor resection.

BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive removal of rectal tumors has proven to be a safe alternative to the open approach. Despite increased use of laparoscopy, its eligibility for older adults requires further exploration. This study compares perioperative mortality and 5-year overall, disease-free, and relative survival after laparoscopic and open surgery in rectal cancer patients aged ≥80 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data derive from 30 German regional cancer registries and cover approximately one quarter of the entire German population. All primary nonmetastatic rectal adenocarcinoma cases with surgery between 2005 and 2014 were eligible for inclusion. To compare survival rates, Kaplan-Meier analysis, a relative survival model, and multivariable Cox regression were applied; a sensitivity analysis assessed bias by exclusion. RESULTS: 1532 patients were included, of whom 17.1% underwent laparoscopic procedures. 30 days after surgery, 2.7% of the laparoscopy patients had died compared to 7.0% in the open surgery group. The multivariable analysis confirmed that minimally invasive procedures are followed by a lower 30-day postoperative mortality risk (odds ratio, OR, 0.352; 95% confidence interval, CI, 0.161-0.771; p = 0.009). With a 5-year disease-free survival rate of 52.0 vs. 47.6% (p = 0.557), only an nonsignificant long-term advantage of the minimally invasive approach was observed. CONCLUSION: Given the results of this study, older rectal cancer patients are likely to benefit from the laparoscopic approach in the short term, and there are also no disadvantages in terms of long-term survival. Therefore, laparoscopy should be considered a standard procedure for older adults as well.