Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Aug 27, 2019; 11(8): 334-341
Published online Aug 27, 2019. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v11.i8.334
Systematic review of anorectal leiomyosarcoma: Current challenges and recent advances
Mohammed O Nassif, Razan A Habib, Luai Z Almarzouki, Nora H Trabulsi
Mohammed O Nassif, Razan A Habib, Luai Z Almarzouki, Nora H Trabulsi, Department of Surgery, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Nassif MO conceived the research and designed the study; Habib RA and Marzouki LZ acquired and interpreted the data, and wrote the manuscript; Trabulsi NH and Nassif MO edited and revised the article for important intellectual content; All authors critically reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: Mohammed O Nassif, FACS, FRSC, MD, Consultant Surgeon, Department of Surgery, King Abdulaziz University, PO Box 80215, Al Ehtifalat St, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. dr.monassif@gmail.com
Telephone: +966-55-5597200 Fax: +966-12-6408347
Received: May 29, 2019
Peer-review started: June 4, 2019
First decision: August 2, 2019
Revised: August 10, 2019
Accepted: August 13, 2019
Article in press: August 2, 2019
Published online: August 27, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: The current mainstay treatment of anorectal leiomyosarcoma is surgical resection with negative margins. Based on the published case series and reports, sphincter-preserving surgery followed by radiotherapy yields local recurrence rates that are comparable to radical resection. Moreover, neoadjuvant radiation improves local recurrence rates, as compared to adjuvant radiation. Adjuvant chemotherapy significantly improves rates of distant recurrence and overall survival; however, the choice to use chemotherapy in this setting should be determined according to a multidisciplinary team consideration of patient-related factors and treatment toxicity. Since local and distant tumor recurrences are common, even years after resection, post-surgery long-term follow-up is needed.