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The Swedish Approach Towards Radiotherapy and Rectal Cancer: Making Sense of Where They Have Been and Where They Are Going

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Comprehensive Rectal Cancer Care

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Abstract

In this section I offer a personal view on what the surgeon should consider concerning data from radiotherapy (RT) trials in rectal cancer and particularly on the chronological development and meaning of the important Swedish RT data. Professor Påhlman’s chapter was the first chapter delivered to our editors for this book on 20th March 2014 even when it was still a germinating idea. Lars Påhlman subsequently died from metastatic cancer at his Uppsala home on 21st November 2015. We have deliberately kept the chapter unmodified to provide some insight not only into his thinking concerning rectal cancer management but also to highlight his impressions back in 2014 of where the future might take rectal cancer care. It is not surprising that Lars was prophetic in his interpretation of the potential place of the “watch and wait” treatment initiated by Professor Angelita Habr-Gama. Improvements in radiation scheduling and chemotherapy combinations as well as in the imaging and the pathologic interpretation of tumour responsiveness are securing an expanded role for this approach in our patients with the deliberate presentation of both an Australasian and a North American perspective in this section and elsewhere in this book.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Andrew P. Zbar

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  1. Andrew P. Zbar
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Mary Kwaan

  2. University of Melbourne, Victoria, VIC, Australia

    Andrew Zbar

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Zbar, A.P. (2019). The Swedish Approach Towards Radiotherapy and Rectal Cancer: Making Sense of Where They Have Been and Where They Are Going. In: Kwaan, M., Zbar, A. (eds) Comprehensive Rectal Cancer Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98902-0_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98902-0_20

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