Table 3. Summary of the studies comparing LE vs. radical surgery for early rectal cancer.

Study	T stage	Patients (n)	Excision technique	FU (mos)	5-year local recurrence (%)	5-year distant recurrence (%)	5-year disease-free survival (%)	5-year overall survival (%)	Negative margin (%)	Intact specimen (%)	Post op complications (%)
TAE vs. TME
Nascimbeni et al. (47), 2004	T1	70	TAE	54	6.6	14.2	66.6	72.4	–	–	–
		74	TME	–	2.8	6.9	83.6	90.4	–	–	–
Endreseth et al. (48), 2005	T1	35	TAE	60	12	0	64	70	46	–	–
		256	TME	60	6	7	77	80	100	–	–
Bentrem et al. (49), 2005	T1	151	TAE	48	15	12	93	89	–	–	–
		168	TME	58	3	3	97	93	–	–	–
Nash et al. (50), 2009	T1	137	TAE	59	13	–	83	–	–	–	–
		145	TME	77	2.7	–	96	–	–	–	–
TEM vs. TME
De Graafet al. (51), 2009	T1	80	TEM	42	24	0	90	75	–	–	5.8
		75	TME	84	0	8	87	77	–	–	64
Palma et al. (11), 2009	–	34	TEM	86.5	5.9	5.9	82.4	88.2	–	–	2.9
		17	TME	93	0	0	82.4	82.4	–	–	23.5
TAE vs. TEM vs. TME
Ptok et al. (52), 2007	T1	85	TAE	44	6.0 (combined LE)	4.0 (combined LE)	91.4 (combined LE)	83.6	–	–	9.4
		35	TEM	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2.9
		359	TME	–	2	4	92.3	91.5	–	–	25.1
LE vs. TME
You et al. (53), 2007	T1	601	LE	60	8.2	3.6	93.2	77.4	–	–	LE (T1 + T2)
		493	TME	–	4.3	2.6	97.2	81.7	–	–	5.6
	T2	164	LE	–	12.6	5	90.2	67.6	–	–	TME (T1 + T2)
		866	TME	–	7.2	7.7	91.7	76.6	–	–	14.6
TAE vs. TEM
Moore et al. (37), 2008	T1, T2 T3	89	TAE	53	24	4	–	–	71	65	17
		82	TEM	20	4	1	–	–	90	94	15

LE, local excision; TAE, transanal excision; TME, total mesorectal excision; TEM, transanal endoscopic microsurgery.