European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Introduction: Rectal cancer is a common malignancy in both men and women, with about 40,000 new cases in the United States and more than 14,000 cases in the United Kingdom in 2015. Despite the overall decrease in incidence and mortality from colorectal cancer, the incidence in young individuals is rising, with a 124% increase expected among 20-34-year-olds by 2030. In 2018, there were 56750 new cases of rectal cancer recorded in India. Despite efforts to implement screening programmes, the majority of individuals are diagnosed at a locally advanced stage of the disease (T3-T4, Nx, and Mx). Aims: Response evaluation after neo adjuvant CT and RT treatment for rectal carcinoma using MRI imaging. Materials and methods: The present study was a prospective observation cohort study. This Study conducted for one and half years from January 2019 to June 2020 at department of Radiotherapy, AGMC and GBP Hospital and Regional Cancer Institution, Agartala. Total 66 patients were included in this study. Result: Almost one third of the patients presented with a chief complaint of per rectal bleeding, which was the most common symptom. Significant unexplained weight loss was experienced by 24.2% of the participants, followed by recurrent abdominal pain (18.2%), constipation (16.7%) and diarrhoea (10.6%). As for co-morbidities, it was seen that around two-thirds (77.3%) of the patients had no comorbidity. Diabetes mellitus was seen in 15.2% of the patients while essential hypertension was marked in 12.1% of the patients. Chronic Hepatitis B infection was seen in 1 patient (1.5%). A large proportion of the participants reported suffering from addiction to betel nuts (34.8%), alcohol (28.8%) and tobacco (18.2%). It was seen that only one participant (1.5%) had a family history of rectal carcinoma. Conclusion: MRI is important not only in the initial staging of rectal cancer, but also in the context following neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy. MRI provides superior soft-tissue characterization, enabling for both primary and nodal tumour staging, as well as examination of tumour morphologic alterations that have been demonstrated to correlate with treatment response. These MRI characteristics have been proven to correlate well with pathologic response and may be predictive of tumour recurrence and patient survival. More research into established and upcoming MRI techniques will help to refine the function of MRI in the care of patients with rectal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant therapy.