The research program at the RAH Colorectal Research Group has three main stems which cover major areas in colorectal patient care: Post-operative recovery, colorectal surgical oncology, and inflammatory bowel disease. Current and recent research activity is summarised below:
Post-operative Recovery
Colorectal Surgical Oncology
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Post-operative Recovery
- Improving return of bowel function after colorectal surgery: A systematic review, case – control study, and the STIMULAX open label randomised controlled trial of post-operative STIMUlants and LAXatives after major colorectal surgery. All these studies are in progress, and active recruitment to the STIMULAX RCT has now started with 100 patients included so far.https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=375650
Colorectal Surgical Oncology
- Artificial intelligence and deep learning to more accurately diagnose positive lymph node disease on pre-operative imaging in colorectal cancer (data collection phase)
- TNT prospective study of Total Neoadjuvant Therapy in locally advanced and stage IV rectal cancer (ethics submission phase).
- RENO: Prospective Study of ‘Watch and Wait’ Strategy in Patients with Rectal Cancer who have Developed a Clinical Complete Response with concurrent Chemo‐radiotherapy: RENO trial (REctal cancer No Operation).
Protocol here: https://gicancer.org.au/clinical-trial/reno/#health-professionals - REACCT collaborative: Research in Early Age Colorectal Cancer Trends. Data collected and submitted to the first study. Details here: twitter.com/REACCTcollab
- Impact of lateral pelvic lymph nodes on outcome after neoadjuvant chemoradiation for rectal cancer. A systematic review has been completed and is the writeup phase. We have looked at RAH data which demonstrates that patients with lateral node disease have a significantly higher rate of local recurrence, despite being treated with chemoradiation. We are now in the final stages of leading and completing an international case:control study looking at whether surgical resection of these nodes after chemoradiation affects outcome (this includes our patients, and those form major centres in the Netherlands and the USA).
Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- EEN: The role of elemental enteral nutrition in the treatment of acute Crohns flare: review and Royal Adelaide experience (data collection completed, paper in submission).