Skip to main content
2026 ASCRS Annual Scientific Meeting Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
CME
CME
Invitation/Ticketed Event
Invitation/Ticketed Event
Invited Lectureship
Invited Lectureship
Award Recipient
Award Recipient
Live Streamed Session
Live Streamed Session
Nurses Contact Hours
Nurses Contact Hours
Self-Assessment
Self-Assessment
Live Q&A and Polling
Live Q&A and Polling
Social
Social
Industry
Industry

Session:: ePosters-Sat-M8: Colon & Colorectal Cancer

EP186 - The role of pathologic nodal positivity in patients with rectal cancer achieving pathologic complete response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy

Saturday, May 9, 2026
3:47 PM - 3:52 PM ET

    ePoster Presenter(s)

  • Hoyeon Kwon, MD

    Surgical Resident, Department of Surgery
    Department of Surgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Republic of Korea
    Kyungpook National University School of Medicine
    Daegu, Kyongsang-bukto, Republic of Korea

    Disclosure information not submitted.

    • Senior Author(s)

  • Seungho Song

    Assistant professor
    Kyungpook National University Hospital
    Kyungpook National University
    Daegu, Taegu-jikhalsi, Republic of Korea

    Disclosure information not submitted.

Purpose/Background: Pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) is known to be associated with favorable long-term outcome in patients with rectal cancer. However, it is unclear whether pCR limited to the rectum or regional lymph node (rLN) is also with outcome. We sought to determine whether the association between patient outcomes and the anatomic extent of pCR and adjuvant chemotherapy treatment regardless of pCR.

Methods/Interventions: A total of 895 rectal cancer diagnosed during January 2011 to December 2022 who underwent surgery following preoperative CRT were identified in our hospital database. Of these, 143 patients (16.0%) achieved pCR, and they divided into 2 groups based on pathologic rLN status (overall [rectum+rLN, ypT0N0] versus rectum-only [ypT0N+]).

Results/Outcomes: Of 143 identified patients, 132 (92.3%) experienced overall pCR (ypT0N0) and 11 (7.7%) was rectum-only pCR (ypT0N+). Adjuvant chemotherapy was performed in 64 patients (44.8%). The median follow-up duration after surgery was 52.3 months. For anatomic extent of pCR, 5-year overall survival (OS) and 5-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) were 96.2 % and 93.4 % for patients with overall pCR (ypT0N0), and 100 % and 100 % for rectum-only pCR (ypT0N+) (p=0.61, p=0.39, respectively). For treatment of adjuvant chemotherapy, 5-year OS and 5-year RFS were 95.3 % and 92.0 % for patients treated adjuvant chemotherapy, and 98.0 % and 95.7 % for no adjuvant chemotherapy (p=0.57, p=0.37, respectively).

Conclusion/Discussion: In patients achieving pCR, rLN status ypN0 or ypN+ carry similar prognosis regarding OS and RFS. Adjuvant chemotherapy also show no difference for OS and RFS. Further large-scale studies were warranted to validate our results.