Outcome after Introduction of Complete Mesocolic Excision for Colon Cancer Is Similar for Open and Laparoscopic Surgical Treatments

Background: Complete mesocolic excision (CME) and a high (apical) vascular tie may improve oncologic outcome after surgery for colon cancer. Our primary aim was to emulate a previous national result of 73.8% overall survival (OS) with both the open and laparoscopic techniques. Methods: A prospective study of radical colon cancer was initiated in a Norwegian community teaching hospital in 2007 and comprised a consecutive group of 251 patients with TNM stages I-III that had surgery according to the CME principle. Oncological outcome was assessed as OS, disease-free survival (DFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS), as well as time to recurrence (TTR), using Cox regression analysis. Results: In-hospital mortality was 3.6%, 2.3% for laparoscopic surgery and 4.9% for open management. Significantly more patients in the open CME group developed complications in the short term (p < 0.001). Twelve or more lymph nodes were retrieved from 82.9% (208/251) of the specimens. Overall 3-year OS was 84.5%, DFS 77.4%, CSS 91.5% and TTR 86.8%. The surgical approach was not a significant predictor for any of the survival parameters. Conclusions: There was no survival difference between open and laparoscopic CME colonic resections, and the present OS improved from a previous OS from 2000.