Journal: Zhonghua wei chang wai ke za zhi = Chinese journal of gastrointestinal surgery
This article presents the 2025 guideline for full-course management of early colorectal cancer in China, emphasizing standardized practice across screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.
Key points from the publication:
- Scope and purpose: The guideline addresses the entire continuum of care for early colorectal cancer, aiming to improve prognosis through earlier detection and more uniform, evidence-based management.
- Screening strategy: A refined, precise risk-stratified screening system is introduced, built on the “modified Asia-Pacific risk score,” to better identify high-risk individuals and optimize resource use.
- Diagnostic quality control: Quantitative quality benchmarks are defined for both endoscopic and pathological assessment, targeting more accurate detection and characterization of early lesions.
- Treatment pathway: A stepwise algorithm prioritizes endoscopic resection as the primary treatment for appropriate early lesions. Surgery is reserved as a complementary option when high-risk pathological features are present.
- Multidisciplinary decision-making: Routine integration of multidisciplinary team (MDT) evaluation is embedded into the management process to support individualized, evidence-based treatment decisions.
Overall, the article provides an integrated explanation of these core updates, focusing on standardizing and homogenizing clinical practice for early colorectal cancer across China.