Current strategy and future directions in colon cancer surgery – literature review.

Introduction. We chose colon cancer as a subject of our study because, beyond the screening efforts and of a minimally invasive precision surgery, supported by the latest generation oncology therapies, adapted to genetic analysis and the calculation of the individual risk of patients, we are still confronting with a low survival prognosis, which correlates with lymph node status. Unlike rectal cancer, to which the surgical treatment has moved to the secondary plane, surgery remains the saving therapeutic solution for colon cancer. Several recent studies analyzing neoadjuvant immunotherapy are ongoing but require further evaluations to demonstrate the long-term benefit. Materials and methods. We performed a literature search in the PubMed database from the last five years using the words of interest, as follows: current affairs, colon cancer, surgical treatment, transanal, extensive lymphadenectomy, sentinel lymph node. In addition, papers from the reference bibliography were consulted. Results. The main topics of scientific debate individualized in recent years converge towards a personalized surgery to optimize colonic resection and radicality by extending lymphadenectomy, by intraoperative evaluation of colon vascularization, as well as by lymphatic drainage mapping and guiding colon resections according to local anatomical peculiarities. Our search generated 402 titles, of which 89 in the last year. Subsequently, those that did not have the abstract available or were not written in English were excluded. Discussion. Recent studies have observed that the efforts to detect micrometastases, as well as the extensive excision of the regional ganglia confered a more precise pathological anatomy staging and improved the oncological prognosis of the patient. Conclusions. Current technologies, both in terms of diagnosis and treatment, allow us to perform an extensive radical surgery with minimal risks in the short and long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]