Radiology's role in colorectal cancer care set to grow following 'groundbreaking' trial results
Trial results shared during the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) annual meeting promise to increase interventional radiologists’ role in the clinical management of colorectal cancer.
During an oral abstract presentation, Martijn Ruben Meijerink, MD, with Amsterdam University Medical Center, detailed results from the COLLISION trial, which aimed to compare different methods of treatment for colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). Based on the positive results Meijerink and his team observed during their research, the group determined that thermal ablation should be considered as the new standard of care for CRLM due to the “superior safety profile, lower costs and shorter hospital stay” associated with the procedure.
The multicenter trial included 341 patients with untreated CRLM. Patients with fewer than 10 lesions were divided into low, intermediate and high disease burden subgroups and randomly assigned one of two treatments—surgical resection or thermal ablation.
After a median follow up of 28.8 months, researchers did not observe a difference in overall survival between the two groups. Procedure-related mortality for the surgical group was recorded at 2.1%, compared to 0% in the thermal ablation group.
What’s more, the thermal ablation group also displayed fewer adverse effects and enjoyed shorter hospital stays than the resection group.
The results were so conclusive that the trial was halted at halftime for having met predefined stopping rules.
In a statement emailed Monday, the Society of Interventional Radiology applauded the researchers for their “groundbreaking work” and expressed optimism for how the trial’s results will improve patient care.
“This is tremendous news for patients around the world. Interventional radiologists are uniquely suited to offer thermal ablation due to their extensive training in imaging, image-guided treatments and clinical care,” SIR President Robert J. Lewandowski, MD, said in the statement. “We hope the full data are published soon so we can operationalize this treatment in the field, move the standard of care forward and give patients new hope for not just treatment but recovery.”
ASCO 2024, currently taking place in Chicago, is set to wrap up on Tuesday, June 4.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.