“What is there to lose? As with many things in life, it is a matter of weighing up the risk, and with the type of monitoring regime in place – scans and endoscopy – the risk is low and there is still the fall-back option of having the second procedure.” R.M.
Many patients with early growths in the rectum (back passage) can have a safe removal of the growth through the back passage, and can avoid major abdominal surgery. However, the majority of patients are not offered this type of surgery because there has been difficulty in the past in being able to identify who can safely undergo this type of surgery.
We have found a new way of looking at MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans that can help us to improve how we find patients that could avoid major surgery and instead have the growth removed through the back passage. This procedure is known as “local excision”.
In the PRESERVE Trial we want to increase the number of operations that can be performed using local excision, by using this new MRI scan reporting system.
“It would help talking to other patients also going through this journey.” K.W.
Below is a link to a list of other websites that may be useful to you at different times during your journey.