Loading
The UK-led trial asking whether people with rectal cancer can keep their rectum: give radiotherapy, see how the tumour responds, and operate only if it has to be removed.
STAR-TREC is the British answer to the organ-preservation question the American PROSPECT trial approached from the other direction. It randomised people with early and intermediate stage rectal cancer between total mesorectal excision and two response-adapted radiotherapy schedules, long-course chemoradiotherapy or short-course radiotherapy, each followed by assessment and either watchful waiting or local excision. Its 12-month results, published in Lancet Oncology in 2026 with Simon Bach as first author and David Sebag-Montefiore as second, are the first randomised comparison of the two radiotherapy schedules for organ preservation. NICE NG151 recommendation 1.3.7 already tells teams to warn people who defer surgery after a complete response that recurrence is possible and to encourage them into a trial with data collected in a national registry, which is what STAR-TREC provides.
Shares David Sebag-Montefiore, Leeds Cancer Centre, St James's University Hospital, Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags uk, rectal.
Shares Dion Morton, David Sebag-Montefiore, Leeds Cancer Centre, St James's University Hospital, Colorectal cancer and the tag uk.
Shares Dion Morton, University Hospitals Birmingham / University of Birmingham Cancer Research Centre, Leeds Cancer Centre, St James's University Hospital, Colorectal cancer and the tag uk.
Shares Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tags uk, rectal.
Shares Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tag uk.
Shares University Hospitals Birmingham / University of Birmingham Cancer Research Centre and the tag uk.
Shares Leeds Cancer Centre, St James's University Hospital and the tag uk.
Shares Rectal cancer, Colorectal cancer and the tag uk.