Application value of biplane transrectal ultrasonography plus ultrasonic elastosonography and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography in preoperative T staging after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer

Purpose: To determine the accuracy of biplane transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) plus ultrasonic elastosonography (UE) and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in preoperative T staging after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. Materials and methods: Fifty-three patients with advanced lower rectal cancer were examined before and after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with use of TRUS plus UE and CEUS and were diagnosed as having T stage disease. We compared ultrasonic T stages before and after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and analyzed any changes. Also, with postoperative pathological stages as the gold standard, we compared ultrasonic and pathological T stages and determined their consistency by the kappa statistic. Results: For patients with rectal cancer, ultrasonic T stages were lower after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy than before, with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). The posttreatment downstaging rate was 39.6% (21/53). A total of 84.9% received correct staging with use of biplane TRUS plus UE and CEUS in the evaluation of preoperative T staging after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer, which was highly consistent with that of pathological staging (κ = 0.768, P < 0.05). Its sensitivities were 80.0%, 50.0%, 75.0%, 96.3%, and 100% in the diagnoses of stages T0 to T4 rectal cancers, respectively; the specificities were 95.4%, 97.9%, 95.1%, 88.5%, and 100% at stages T0 to T4, respectively. Conclusion: Biplane TRUS plus UE and CEUS can be used to accurately perform preoperative T staging in rectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy; in addition, this procedure well reflects changes in depth of rectal cancer invasion into the intestinal wall before and after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. It is of great value in clinically evaluating the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, in selecting therapeutic regimens, and in avoiding overtreatment.