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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Dec 27, 2015; 7(12): 349-355
Published online Dec 27, 2015. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v7.i12.349
Published online Dec 27, 2015. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v7.i12.349
Quality of life in rectal cancer surgery: What do the patient ask?
Giovanni D De Palma, Center of Excellence for Technical Innovation in Surgery, Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Naples Federico II, School of Medicine, 80131 Naples, Italy
Gaetano Luglio, Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Naples Federico II, School of Medicine, 80131 Naples, Italy
Author contributions: De Palma GD and Luglio G were both responsible for the design, conception, drafting, and final approval of this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None. Giovanni D De Palma and Gaetano Luglio have nothing to disclose.
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/
Correspondence to: Giovanni D De Palma, MD, Director of Center of Excellence for Technical Innovation in Surgery, Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Naples Federico II, School of Medicine, via Pansini 5, 80131 Naples, Italy. giovanni.depalma@unina.it
Telephone: +39-81-7462773 Fax: +39-81-7462752
Received: May 24, 2015
Peer-review started: May 25, 2015
First decision: August 16, 2015
Revised: September 13, 2015
Accepted: October 12, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: December 27, 2015
Peer-review started: May 25, 2015
First decision: August 16, 2015
Revised: September 13, 2015
Accepted: October 12, 2015
Article in press: October 13, 2015
Published online: December 27, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Survival and disease-free survival for patients affected by rectal cancer have overall increased, thanks to the advances in surgery, medical treatments, palliative care and multimodal strategies. This editorial will explore how the growing demand for a better quality of life has in someway favored the development of new practices and new techniques such as sphincter saving procedures, reservoir techniques, minimally invasive surgery, as long as local treatments or even the possibility of a wait and see approach in highly selected cases.