Multicenter phase 3 trial of chemoradiotherapy and local excision versus total mesorectal excision for T2-T3ab, N0, M0 rectal cancer

The standard treatment for patients with stage T2-T3ab, N0, M0 rectal cancer is total mesorectal excision (TME), but this treatment is associated with high morbidity and quality of life disorders. The phase 3 TAUTEM trial, at 17 centers in Spain, compared TME versus chemoradiotherapy followed by local excision with transanal endoscopic microsurgery (CRT-TEM) for these patients. In this trial including 173 patients, the CRT-TEM approach achieved noninferior results compared with TME in terms of local recurrence and showed similar results in terms of survival. The authors conclude that CRT-TEM was is a suitable treatment option for patients with T2-T3ab, N0, M0 rectal cancer (visual abstract).