Safety and long-term results of endoscopic transanal resection in treating rectal adenomas: 15 years' experience.

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic transanal resection (ETAR) is a scarcely used technique to treat large or sessile rectal adenomas not amenable to polypectomy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate safety and long-term results of ETAR in treating rectal adenomas in three hospitals over 15 years. METHODS: Patients who underwent ETAR during 1996-2010 were retrospectively analyzed with respect to patient, adenoma, and operative characteristics, earlier operations, complications, follow-up time, recurrence rates, recurrence treatment, and cancer incidence. RESULTS: Ninety-two patients underwent a total 111 ETARs to treat rectal adenoma. The mean age of patients was 71 years, and the median ASA class 3. Twenty-eight patients previously had received other treatments for rectal adenoma. Incidental carcinoma was found in eight patients. Sixty-seven adenomas were treated with only one ETAR and 17 with two or three ETARs. Sixty-seven patients did not have a recurrence, whereas 14 patients had an adenoma recurrence and 3 patients developed invasive carcinoma during a mean follow-up of 30 months. Complications occurred in 14 patients; all were minor, except for one explorative laparotomy without findings. No mortalities or conversions to open surgery occurred. CONCLUSIONS: ETAR is a minimally invasive and safe technique with inexpensive instrumentation to treat rectal adenomas that are not amenable to polypectomy. Adenoma recurrence rate was 15% and cancer incidence 3% in follow-up.

Long-term outcome of patients with frequently recurrent non-muscle-invasive bladder carcinoma treated with one perioperative plus four weekly instillations of mitomycin C followed by monthly bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) or alternating BCG and interferon-α2b instillations: prospective randomised FinnBladder-4 study.

BACKGROUND: Recurrent TaT1 non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients should be treated with immediate instillation of chemotherapy after transurethral resection of bladder tumour followed by instillation therapy. OBJECTIVE: To present long-term results of a study exploring the effect of initial mitomycin C (MMC) instillations followed by two types of immunotherapy for patients with frequently recurring NMIBC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Between 1992 and 1996, 236 patients with frequently recurring TaT1 grade 1-2 NMIBC were enrolled in the prospective randomised multicentre FinnBladder-4 study. INTERVENTION: One perioperative plus four weekly instillations of MMC followed by monthly bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) or alternating BCG and interferon (IFN)-α2b instillations for up to 1 yr. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Primary end points were time to first recurrence and time to progression. Secondary end points were disease-specific mortality and overall survival. The principal statistical methods were the proportional subdistribution hazards model and Cox proportional hazards model plus cumulative incidence and Kaplan-Meier analyses. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: The median follow-up was 10.3 yr (maximum: 19.8 yr) in the MMC-BCG group and 8.6 yr (maximum: 19.8 yr) in the MMC-BCG/IFN group. The probability of recurrence was significantly lower in the MMC-BCG group than in the MMC-BCG/IFN group (43% vs 78% at 10 yr and 45% vs 80% at 15 yr, respectively; hazard ratio: 2.86; 95% confidence interval, 1.98-4.13; p<0.001). There were no significant differences in the probability of progression, disease-free mortality, or overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: Perioperative plus four weekly MMC instillations followed by monthly BCG, instead of alternating BCG and IFN-α2b instillations, significantly reduce long-term recurrence. PATIENT SUMMARY: We demonstrated in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients with exceptionally frequent recurrences that the risk of long-term recurrence was reduced from 78-80% to 43-45% if one perioperative plus four weekly mitomycin C instillations were followed by monthly bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) instillations for 1 yr instead of alternating instillations of BCG and interferon-α2b. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The registration was not considered necessary at this stage of the follow-up because the study was initiated as early as in 1992 and the last randomisation took place in 1996, before the current requirements concerning study registrations were implemented.