How do Australasian surgeons manage lateral pelvic lymph node malignancy?

A survey provides a snapshot of Western attitudes to the Japanese standard practice of dissection in rectal cancer
Clare Pain
two surgeons in masks concentrating during an operation

Although most Australasian colorectal surgeons say lateral pelvic lymph node dissection is advisable for locally advanced low rectal cancer, few have the training and experience to do it, results of a survey suggest.

The procedure, which is standard of care in Japan for rectal cancers distal to the peritoneal reflection with invasion beyond the muscularis propria, is rarely used in the West, despite evidence that it leads to better survival, say investigators from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne.