This Popular Cancer Procedure Sounds Logical — The Evidence Suggests Otherwise

This common cancer surgery sounds logical—but new data shows it may not help. #coloncancer #colorectalcancer #coloncancersurgery

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Episode Description:

It sounds obvious, right?

If you remove tumor tissue… outcomes should improve.

That’s been a long-standing belief in colorectal cancer treatment, and cancer treatment in general.

But a new, well-designed colorectal cancer trial just tested that idea—and the results were surprising.

In this breakdown, Dr. Chaplin walks through:
• what the study actually tested
• why surgery didn’t improve outcomes
• and when it does still make sense

This is one of those moments where “common sense” doesn’t match cancer biology.

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Disclaimer:
The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only, and does not constitute medical advice. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard or read in this podcast or on this channel.
Reliance on any information provided by Dr. Jay Chaplin or Elevating Cancer Treatment is solely at your own risk. Dr. Jay Chaplin is a scientist and drug developer, not a medical doctor providing patient care. The content presented here reflects general scientific understanding and research, and may not be applicable to your individual health circumstances. Individual medical conditions and treatments vary, and no two situations are exactly alike.
Always consult with your personal healthcare provider before making any decisions about your health or treatment plan.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So today I'm bringing you another episode of Common Sense Doesn't Work in Cancer Therapy and Doctor's Traditions Don't Help Either. So this is specifically about colorectal cancer, and it's about a recently released, fairly decent trial. It's about 380 people, 190 in one group, 192 in the other. Randomized prospective, this is exactly what you want to see in a trial. Kudos for good trial design. I don't get to say that very often. Hello and welcome to Elevating Cancer Treatment, where we explain the science and debunk myths to help you navigate your health journey. My background is a little different. Beyond educating about cancer, I'm actually designing new drugs that are defining the future of oncology. This direct hands-on experience offers me a very different perspective of how these cancer treatments work on the body, interact with the cancer cells, and cause side effects. And these are insights that I'm excited to share with you. If that sounds interesting, make sure to like this video, subscribe to the channel, and hit that notification bell so you never miss an update. And please share it if you find it useful. I'm Dr. Jay Chaplin. An important reminder, I'm a PhD, not an MD. The information in this video is education and it's not medical advice. Every cancer is unique and no general information applies to everyone. Please remember that. Always consult with your healthcare provider for guidance on your specific situation. And two quick things. First, as a thank you for being here, I've created a free resource, 10 things to elevate your chemo journey, which you can download from the link below. And second, by signing up, you'll also get updates on that innovative cancer treatment I'm working on. I'm confident it represents a significant advancement in immunotherapy. So please take a moment, download your free guide, and join us in shaping the future of cancer treatment. So, what was this one looking at? This is a very common sense approach. People with colorectal cancer were given chemotherapy, and then either they had surgery to remove metastatic lesions, or they didn't. And then they continued on chemotherapy. And the assumption is that if you quote turn back the clock or remove the bulk of the tumor material, this is what they call debulking, that would benefit the patients. Now, this has been seen in one particular scenario before. If there are liver metastases, we know that removing liver metastases improves outcomes. But is this generally true? Doctors have thought this is generally true, and they push for these debulking surgeries. That is not the case. So again, 190 in one group, 192 in the other group, full fox or k-pox as the chemotherapy, multiple rounds, get to a point of stable disease, tumor shrinkage. Some of these patients also have bevochizumab in there. And then they were randomized into either a group that had surgery or didn't have surgery. And in looking at the outcomes for this trial, again, well designed, well randomized, excellent trial, there was absolutely zero difference between the two groups. Having the surgery to remove bulk tumor material made no difference. It didn't matter what stage they were at with their chemotherapy, whether they were responding incredibly well or so-so. It didn't matter whether this was a complete and total resection, taking out all of the metastatic tumor material, or if they could only get 75-80% of it. No difference at all. So we know that if you can remove liver metastases in colorectal cancer, this is beneficial. Great. We now know that for no other case, no other type of metastases for colorectal cancer does debulking make sense. And so again, this comes back to the question of doctors' traditions, what they think they know, and common sense. Common sense tells you that taking out the tumor material would be beneficial for you. But now we know, since we've tested it, that that is not the case unless specifically it's liver cancer. And so again, this is the kind of thing that we like to bring to you and like to bring to our clients. Because why go through a large involved surgery rooting around in your abdomen, pulling out tumor material if it's not going to make any difference to your prognosis at all? Why go through that? The chemotherapy is doing the heavy lifting. Knowing these things makes your treatment journey easier, more straightforward. If you want to hear more about colorectal cancer, we did an early video about that, myths around colorectal cancer. A fair amount of it is focused on diagnosis and prevention, but there are some very good nuggets for treatment in there, especially preventing relapse. So take a look at that one here. Beyond these videos, if you need more personalized guidance or a deeper dive into specific treatments to have your treatment be as effective as possible, I offer one on one sessions and medical advocacy. You can find information on our website, which is linked down below. Again, if you found this video informative, please give it a thumbs up, click the notification bell, and subscribe to our channel for more science based cancer insights.