Removing the rectal tumor and liver spread in one operation did not clearly raise complications or hurt survival compared with two separate operations, a French national study found.
- Serious complications occurred in 40% of combined operations and 45% of staged ones, a gap that could be chance.
- Median survival was 52 months with combined surgery and 57 months with staged surgery, also not clearly different.
- Major liver removal independently raised the risk of serious complications.
This was a review of hospital records, not a randomized trial, and surgeons chose the approach for each patient. It shows no clear winner, so the choice still rests on the individual case.
Comparative Study by Marchegiani F, Dhote A (…) Tzedakis S et 10 al. in Br J Surg
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© The Author(s) 2026. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of BJS Foundation Ltd. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.