Evaluation of Staging Laparoscopy in Colorectal Cancer Assessment

Abstract

Background: The goal of staging laparoscopy in primary gastrointestinal malignancies is to examine any local, regional, and/or metastatic disease in order to determine the stage of the presenting malignancy, and thus, the possibility of performing a curative resection. This study aimed to evaluate the role of staging laparoscopy in preoperative assessment of colorectal cancer patients. Subjects and Method: this is a cross-sectional study, conducted at Suez Canal University hospital. A total of 26 patients with colorectal cancer were enrolled and had a CT scanning with contrast and staging laparoscopy as a step in the preoperative assessment of their disease. Results: Staging laparoscopy of these patients revealed metastatic spread in 10 cases (38%). Both pelvi-abdominal CT and staging laparoscopy had equally high specificity for metastatic diseases (99%). However, regarding the sensitivity, staging laparoscopy was superior to pelvi-abdominal CT in detecting the presence of metastatic disease in general (83% vs 66%, p=0.026). Conclusion: staging laparoscopy is a valuable tool in evaluating colorectal cancer patients preoperatively. Future studies should be conducted on a higher number of patients in order to detect the actual value of staging laparoscopy in detecting metastatic spread.