Sphincter saving and abdomino-perineal resections following neoadjuvant chemoradiation in locally advanced low rectal cancer

Background: The improvement in surgical techniques alongside neoadjuvant chemoradiation enabled more patients with low rectal cancer to have sphincter preservation. Study aim: To compare the oncologic and functional outcome in patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer treated by neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by sphincter saving resection (SSR) against those who underwent abdomino-perineal resection (APR). Patients and methods: A total of 111 patients with low rectal cancer were included in the study. Sixty-one consented patients who prospectively underwent SSR, from Jan 2008 to Jan 2013, and a retrospective group, formed of 50 patients, selected from cases seen at NCI, with comparable demographic, clinical and pathologic criteria, who underwent APR from Jan 2003 to Jan 2008. All lesions were