Accuracy of Endoscopic Ultrasound in Staging of Early Rectal Cancer Claudio Roberto Tombazzi, MD; Parker Loy; Victor Bondar, MD; Jose I. Ruiz, MD; Bradford Waters, MD; and Claudio Ruben Tombazzi, MD Endoscopic ultrasound can be highly accurate for the staging of neoplasms in early rectal cancer. Claudio Roberto olorectal cancer is the second most found EUS to be highly accurate for differenti- Tombazzi is an Internal common cause of cancer death in the ating various T stages.8 However, EUS cannot Medicine Resident in the Department of CUS, with one-third of all colorectal can- assess iliac and mesenteric lymph nodes or pos- Medicine at Vanderbilt cers occurring within the rectum. Each year, terior tumor extension beyond endopelvic fas- University in Nashville, an estimated 40 000 Americans are diagnosed cia in advanced RC. Notable heterogeneity was Tennessee. Parker Loy 1,2 is a Medical Student, with rectal cancer (RC). The prognosis and found among the studies in the meta-analyses Victor Bondar is an treatment of RC depends on both T and N with regard to the type of equipment used for Assistant Professor, Brad- stage at the time of diagnosis.3-5 According to staging, as well as the criteria used to assess ford Waters is a Professor, the most recent National Comprehensive Can- the depth of penetration and nodal status. The and Claudio Ruben Tom- bazzi is an Associate Pro- cer Network guidelines from May 2019, pa- recent introduction of phased-array coils and fessor, all at the University tients with T1 to T2N0 tumors should undergo the development of T2-weighted fast spin se- of Tennessee Health Sci- transanal or transabdominal surgery upfront, quences have improved the resolution of MRI. ence Center in Memphis, whereas patients with T3 to T4N0 or any TN1 The MERCURY trial showed that extension of Tennessee. Jose Ruiz is a Resident of Internal to 2 should start with neoadjuvant therapy for tumor to within 1 mm of the circumferential mar- Medicine at The better locoregional control, followed by sur- gin on high-resolution MRI correctly predicted University of Puerto gery.6 Therefore, the appropriate management margin involvement at the time of surgery in 92% Rico in San Juan. 9 Correspondence: of RC requires adequate staging. of the patients. In the retrospective study by Claudio Ruben Tombazzi Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), magnetic reso- Balyasnikova and colleagues, MRI was found to ([email protected]) nance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography correctly identify partial submucosal invasion and (CT) are the imaging techniques currently used to suitability for local excision in 89% of the cases.10 stage RC. In a meta-analysis of 90 articles pub- Therefore, both EUS and MRI are useful, lished between 1985 and 2002 that compared more so than CT, in assessment of the depth of the 3 radiologic modalities, Bipat and colleagues tumor invasion, nodal staging, and predicting the found that MRI and EUS had a similar sensitiv- circumferential resection margin. The use of EUS, ity of 94%, whereas the specificity of EUS (86%) however, does not preclude the use of MRI, or was significantly higher than that of MRI (69%) vice versa. Rather, the 2 modalities can comple- for muscularis propria invasion.7 CT was per- ment each other in staging and proper patient formed only in a limited number of trials because selection for treatment.11 CT was considered inadequate to assess early Despite data supporting the value of EUS in T stage. For perirectal tissue invasion, the sensi- staging RC, its use is limited by a high degree of tivity of EUS was statistically higher than that of operator dependence and a substantial learning CT and MRI imaging: 90% compared with 79% curve,12-17 which may explain the low EUS ac- and 82%, respectively. The specificity estimates curacy observed in some reports.7,13,15 Given the for EUS, CT, and MRI were comparable: 75%, presence of recognized alternatives such as MRI, 78%, and 76%, respectively. The respective sen- we decided to reevaluate EUS accuracy for the sitivity and specificity of the 3 imaging modalities staging of RC outside high-volume specialized to evaluate lymph nodes were also compara- centers and prospective clinical trials. ble: EUS, 67% and 78%; CT, 55% and 74%; and MRI, 66% and 76%. METHODS The role of EUS in the diagnosis and treat- A retrospective chart review was performed ment of RC has long been validated.1,2-5 A meta- that included all consecutive patients under- analysis of 42 studies involving 5039 patients going rectal ultrasound from January 2011 to S26 • FEDERAL PRACTITIONER SPECIAL ISSUE • AUGUST 2019 August 2015 at the US Department of Veter- tumors, 11 adenocarcinomas, 6 tubular adeno- ans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Mem- mas with high-grade dysplasia, and 6 benign phis, Tennessee. Sixty-five patients with adenomas. The preoperative EUS staging was short-stocked or sessile lesions < 15 cm from confirmed for all patients, with 100% sensitivity, anal margin staged T2N0M0 or lower by en- specificity, and accuracy. None of the patients dorectal ultrasound (ERUS) were included. The who underwent endoscopic or surgical trans- patients with neoplasms staged in excess of T2 anal resection had recurrence, determined by or N0 were excluded from the study because normal endoscopic and endoscopic ultrasound treatment protocol dictates immediate neoad- appearance, during a mean of 32.6 months juvant treatment, the administration of which surveillance. would affect subsequent histopathology. For the 37 patients included in the final DISCUSSION analysis, ERUS results were compared with EUS has long been a recognized method for surgical pathology to ascertain accuracy. The T and N staging of RC.1,3-5,7,8 Our data confirm resections were performed endoscopically or that, in experienced hands, EUS is highly accu- surgically with a goal of obtaining clear mar- rate in the staging of early rectal cancers. gins. The choice of procedure depended on The impact of EUS on the management of RC size, shape, location, and depth of invasion. was demonstrated in a Mayo Clinic prospective All patients underwent clinical and endoscopic blinded study.1 In that cohort of 80 consecutive surveillance with flexible sigmoidoscopy/EUS patients who had previously had a CT for stag- every 3 to 6 months for the first 2 years. We ing, EUS altered patient management in about used 2 different gold standards for surveil- 30% of cases. The most common change pre- lance depending on the type of procedure cipatated by EUS was the indication for addi- performed to remove the lesion. A pathology tional neoadjuvant treatment. report was the gold standard used for patients However, the results have not been as en- who underwent surgery. In patients who un- couraging when ERUS is performed outside of derwent endoscopic resection, we used the strict research protocol. A multicenter, prospec- lack of recurrent disease, determined by nor- tive, country-wide quality assurance study from mal endoscopic and endoscopic ultrasound > 300 German hospitals was designed to as- examination, to signify complete endoscopic sess the diagnostic accuracy of EUS in RC.13 Of resection and therefore adequate staging as 29206 patients, 7096 underwent surgery, without an early neoplasm. neoadjuvant treatment, and were included in the final analysis. The correspondence of tumor in- RESULTS vasion with histopathology was 64.7%, with un- From January 2011 to August 2015, 65 rec- derstaging of 18% and overstaging of 17.3%.13 tal ultrasounds were performed. All EUS pro- These numbers were better in hospitals with cedures were performed by 1 physician (C greater experience performing ERUS: 73% ac- Ruben Tombazzi). All patients had previous curacy in the centers with a case load of > 30 endoscopic evaluation and tissue diagnoses. cases per year compared with 63.2% accuracy Twenty-eight patients were excluded: 18 had for the centers with < 10 cases a year. Marusch T3 or N1 disease, 2 had T2N0 but refused sur- and colleagues had previously demonstrated gery, 2 had anal cancer, 3 patients with sus- an EUS accuracy of 63.3% in a study of 1463 pected cancer had benign nonneoplastic patients with RC in Germany.14 Another study disease (2 radiation proctitis, 1 normal rectal based out of the UK had similar findings. Ashraf wall), and 3 underwent EUS for benign tumors and colleagues performed a database analyses (1 ganglioneuroma and 2 lipomas). from 20 UK centers and identified 165 patients Thirty-seven patients were included in the with RC who underwent ERUS and endoscopic study, 3 of whom were staged as T2N0 and microsurgery.15 Compared with histopathology, 34 as T1N0 or lower by EUS. All patients were EUS had 57.1% sensitivity, 73% specificity, and men ranging in age from 43 to 73 years (mean, 42.9% accuracy for T1 cancers; EUS accuracy 59 years). All 37 patients underwent endo- was 50% for T2 and 58% for T3 tumors. The au- scopic or surgical resection of their early rec- thors concluded that the general accuracy of tal neoplasm. The final pathologic evaluation EUS in determining stage was around 50%, the of the specimens demonstrated 14 carcinoid statistical equivalent of flipping a coin. AUGUST 2019 • FEDERAL PRACTITIONER SPECIAL ISSUE • S27 Staging Rectal Cancer The low accuracy of EUS observed by Ger- measure the distance of the tumor to muscu- man and British multicenter studies13-15 was lar layer in our study, but we relied on EUS to attributed to the difference that may exist in predict the circumferential tumor margins and clinical trials at specialized centers compared guide the surgical resection. Of the 11 patients with wider use of EUS in a community setting. with T1 rectal adenocarcinomas and the 6 pa- As seen by our data, the Memphis VAMC is tients with tubular adenoma with high-grade not a high-volume center for the treatment of dysplasia, all treated by local excision, none RC.