Analysis of Risk Factors for Lymph Nodal Involvement in Early Stages of Rectal Cancer: When Can Local Excision Be Considered an Appropriate Treatment? Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Literature

Table 1

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for study selection.

Inclusion criteria
(i) Casistics of rectal cancer T1/T2 treated by radical resection with TME
Exclusion criteria
(i) Rectal cancer T3 or T4
(ii) Rectal cancer in IBD
(iii) Casistics of colon and rectal cancer together
(iv) Neoadjuvant therapies (radio/chemo)
(v) Radical resection of rectal cancer following LE/TEM
(vi) Radical resection of recurrent rectal cancer
(vii) Presence of distant metastasis (M1)
(viii) Studies focused only on selected histotypes (depressed polyps, pedunculated polyps, etc.)
(ix) Studies focused only on selected lymph node involvements (micrometastasis, lateral lymph node metastasis, etc.)