Tailored treatment to improve outcome and long-term Quality of Life in patients with colorectal and anal cancer

The objective of this proposal is to improve or maintain oncologic outcome while improving quality of life for survivors from colorectal or anal cancer.

Our research group has experience with clinical trials, epidemiologic research as well as translational research rendering it possible to reach our goal.We will use a national prospective cohort study on a non-surgical approach for a subset of patients with rectal cancer with the aim to evaluate oncologic outcome and quality of life.

It started in 2017 and is half way in accrual.

The results can be a game changer and will facilitate the addition of a new evidence-based treatment option.We will improve the precision in which we predict which patients will be suitable for non-operative approach through tumour infiltrating lymphocytes using retrospective and prospective tumour samples.

We will identify patient specific factors using questionnaires in large prospective multicentre cohorts (n=1248, n=2000, n=600) that will predict outcome after treatment for colorectal and anal cancer.

This will improve shared decision-making process.We will use large multicenter cohorts (n=3248) as well as a combination of several national registries (n=50 000) to clarify the oncologic risk if a patient has a delay from diagnosis to treatment.

We will also identify risk factors for this delay.In conclusion this proposal will find evidence to personalize treatment, with a focus on patient-reported health and quality of life.