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The revolution of total mesorectal excision (TME) is associated with an enormous improvement in the rates of locoregional recurrence and thus of overall survival in rectal cancer patients. The advent of minimally invasive techniques has increased the technical difficulty of the procedure. Several papers have demonstrated the link between the number of patients and good postoperative results.
Soren Laurberg, Professor of Surgery in Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, explains the Danish experience with rectal surgery centralization and reviews the evolution of surgical outcomes.
As rectal cancer treatment has improved over the decades, so has survival. One of the priorities for rectal cancer survivors is quality of life, which is mostly affected by functional outcomes (anorectal, urologic and sexual). Dr. Laurberg reviews in the last half of his lecture the functional outcomes of TME and quality of life after pelvic surgery.