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Live Stream ViewAttendees 3
Symposium

Malignancy

Rectal Cancer

APP Track
Symposium

The Wilder West of Watch and Wait

Saturday, May 10, 2025
1:15 PM – 2:05 PM PT
Location: Ballroom 6C-F, Upper Level

CME Live Q&A and Polling

    Co-Moderator(s)

  • Jonathan Abelson, MD MS (he/him/his)

    Staff Surgeon
    Lahey Hospital and Medical Center
    Tufts Medical Center
    Arlington, Massachusetts, United States

    All of the relevant financial relationships listed below have been mitigated.
    This individual has no financial relationships with ineligible companies.

  • Wolfgang Gaertner, MD, MSc, MBA

    Professor and Chief, Colon & Rectal Surgery
    University of Minnesota
    University of Minnesota
    Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

    All of the relevant financial relationships listed below have been mitigated.
    Becton Dickinson: Advisor or Review Panel Member (Ongoing), Consultant (Ongoing); Coloplast: Advisor or Review Panel Member (Ongoing), Consultant (Ongoing); Intuitive: Consultant (Ongoing), Teaching (Ongoing)

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:
  • Define criteria for patients entering a watch and wait protocol, including tumor-specific and patient characteristics.
  • Discuss ways to support patients in deciding between radical surgery and a watch-and-wait approach, and identify the optimal time during treatment for having these discussions.
  • Discuss how to manage recurrence after clinical complete response.
CME Credit: 0.75
Self-Assessment Credit: 0.75
Contact Hours: 0.75

This symposium will address the real-world application of nonoperative management with curative intent after total neoadjuvant chemoradiation for rectal cancer, including patient selection, how to assist patients in decision-making, how to interpret post-treatment imaging and endoscopy, surveillance protocols, and management of tumor recurrence.

Presentations:

  • 1:15 PM – 1:18 PM PT
    Introduction
  • 1:18 PM – 1:28 PM PT
    Cut through the malarkey: Nuts and bolts of defining a clinical complete response

    Faculty: Maria Widmar, MD, MPH (she/her/hers) – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

  • 1:28 PM – 1:38 PM PT
    Close But No Cigar: How to Manage Near Complete Response

    Faculty: Daniel Herzig, MD – Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University

  • 1:38 PM – 1:48 PM PT
    Decisions, Decisions Decisions: What Would You Do?

    Faculty: Pasithorn Amy Suwanabol, MD, MS (she/her/hers) – University of Michigan

  • 1:48 PM – 1:58 PM PT
    Recurrence After cCR: Now What?

    Faculty: Antonino Spinelli, Prof, MD, PhD – Humaniats Research Hospital, Humaniats University - Milan, Italy

  • 1:58 PM – 2:00 PM PT
    Question and Answer