Clinical and Translational Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jan 15, 2021; 13(1): 12-23
Published online Jan 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i1.12
Laparoscopy-assisted transanal total mesorectal excision for lower rectal cancer: A feasible and innovative technique
Ying-Jie Li, Lin Wang, Ting-Ting Sun, Ai-Wen Wu
Ying-Jie Li, Lin Wang, Ting-Ting Sun, Ai-Wen Wu, Gastrointestinal Cancer Center Unit III, Beijing Cancer Hospital and Beijing Institute for Cancer Research, Beijing 100142, China
Ying-Jie Li, Ai-Wen Wu, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Beijing Cancer Hospital and Beijing Institute for Cancer Research, Beijing 100142, China
Author contributions: Wu AW contributed to conception and design of the study, drafting and final approval of the manuscript; Li YJ and Sun TT collected the data and drafted the manuscript; Wu AW, Wang L, and Li YJ provided quality control of the study especially the surgery part, and acquired the data; Li YJ contributed to the study design and statistical analysis; All authors approved the final manuscript.
Supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, No. 81773214
Institutional review board statement: This study and the protocol were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee at Beijing Cancer Hospital (approval no. 2017-p2-181-01).
Clinical trial registration statement: This registration policy applies to prospective, randomized, controlled trials only.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ai-Wen Wu, MD, PhD, Professor, Teacher, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Beijing Cancer Hospital and Beijing Institute for Cancer Research, No. 52 Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100142, China. drwuaw@sina.com
Received: August 17, 2020
Peer-review started: August 17, 2020
First decision: September 16, 2020
Revised: September 28, 2020
Accepted: December 16, 2020
Article in press: December 16, 2020
Published online: January 15, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: We report our initial experience with transanal total mesorectal excision for distal rectal cancer, with a 100% success rate of intraoperative preservation of the anal sphincter. The patients in this study had a narrow pelvis, mild obesity, and distal rectal lesions, making the operation extremely difficult. Most of the patients had undergone neoadjuvant chemoradiation. We believe that this procedure is feasible for selected patients with lower rectal cancer, and is worthy of further recommendation.