Comparative short- and long-term outcomes of three techniques of natural orifice specimen extraction surgery for rectal cancer

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety of natural orifice specimen extraction surgery (NOSES) and to compare the short- and long-term outcomes of three techniques of NOSES for rectal cancer (RC). Materials and methods A consecutive series of RC patients in stage I-III who underwent laparoscopic NOSES were enrolled. Three main techniques of NOSES included specimen eversion and extra-abdominal resection (EVER), specimen extraction and extra-abdominal resection (EXER) and intra-abdominal resection and specimen extraction (IREX). The postoperative complications, 5-year disease free survival (DFS), 5-year local recurrence rate (LRR) and 5-year distant metastasis rate (DMR) were compared in three techniques. Results 268 RC patients met inclusion criteria, including 83 patients treated with EVER, 75 patients treated with EXER and 110 patients treated with IREX. Tumor location was the most critical factor associated with technique selection, with P   0.05. For long-term outcomes, the 5-year DFS, 5-year LRR and 5-year DMR were 85.03%, 4.22% and 11.00% for all patients. Patients in advanced tumor stage have worse long-term survival compared with patients in early stage, but no significant survival differences were observed among three technique groups. Conclusion Three techniques of NOSES for RC had acceptable short- and long-term outcomes, and tumor location was a determinant of technique selection.