Trial design and patients
tumors, AJCC Cancer, rectosigmoid cancer, malignant disease
TUMORS, COMPLICATIONS, MALIGNANT DISEASE
This study was an open-labeled, single-center, randomized, controlled, noninferiority trial, conducted in the Department of General Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. This trial was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov on 21/04/2014 (NCT02117557). The Ethics Committee of Southern Medical University approved the trial (Reference number: NFEC-2014-026), and the protocol of this trial was published previously [The inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, and withdrawal criteria were included in our previous protocol. Patients were included if they were 18 to 80 years old; had histologically confirmed rectosigmoid cancer; diagnosed cT1-4aN0-2M0 lesions by abdominal CT and colonoscopy or EUS according to the 7th Edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging Manual; had tumors sized 5 cm or less and located in the rectosigmoid (defined as 10 to 30 cm from the anal verge, measured via colonoscopy or EUS). Patients who have complications requiring emergency operations, malignant disease within 5 years, or other conditions that affect the operation of abdominal surgery (BMI > 30 kg/m