MRI identifying rectal polyps and early rectal cancer. There is a study website that can be found here.
Approximately 4,000 patients are diagnosed and treated with early bowel cancer every year, this number, and the number of benign polyps diagnosed is rising with the introduction of bowel cancer screening.
There are concerns about the best and most precise treatment as there is a risk of both over treatment with a major operation that is not needed and under treatment that does not completely remove all the cancer.
This study will investigate whether MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) can stratify (identify) patient’s cancer accurately with enough information so that the most precise and beneficial treatment can be provided.
- Find cancers which are suitable for ‘local excision’ (this means just removing the tumour locally) and avoiding a major operation with all the bad side effects this involves.
- Identify cancers which are suitable for ‘local excision’ and do not need radiotherapy, which can also have long term bad side effects.
- Make sure that patients who are given a local excision have enough tissue malignant tumour removed and avoid the risk of the cancer coming back.
The study team will ask 56 patients to take part in the trial and they will all undergo an MRI as a standard of care. They will then observe the accuracy of MRI to guide decision making.