TY - JOUR T1 - Predicting Difficult Laparoscopic Total Mesorectal Excision for Locally-advanced Mid-low Rectal Cancer: The <em>EuMaRCS</em> Score Validation JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 2079 LP - 2087 DO - 10.21873/anticanres.14166 VL - 40 IS - 4 AU - NICOLA de'ANGELIS AU - ALEIX MARTÍNEZ-PÉREZ AU - GIULIO CESARE VITALI AU - FREDERIC PIGNEUR AU - ALAIN LUCIANI AU - FRANCESCO BRUNETTI AU - MIQUEL KRAFT AU - EVA MARTÍ-MARTÍNEZ AU - PAOLO MORONI AU - ELOY ESPIN AU - FREDERIC RIS AU - SALVATORE PUCCIARELLI AU - On behalf of the EuMaRCS Study Group Y1 - 2020/04/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/40/4/2079.abstract N2 - Background/Aim: The European MRI and Rectal Cancer Surgery (EuMaRCS) score was proposed to identify preoperatively difficult laparoscopic total mesorectal excision (L-TME) for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). This study aimed to test EuMaRCS's validity. Patients and Methods: Data were retrieved from a European multicenter database, including patients with mid/low LARC, treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy and L-TME with primary anastomosis. The EuMaRCS score was calculated on: BMI&gt;30 (3 points), interspinous distance&lt;96.4 mm (2 points), ymrT stage≥T3b (4 points), and male sex (1 point). Results: The sample was composed of 141 patients, of whom 23 (16.3%) had a difficult L-TME. The EuMaRCS score demonstrated high accuracy in predicting difficult surgery (AROC: 0.806, 95%CI=0.72-0.88), with a cut-off &gt;3 being associated with the best balance in sensitivity (82.6%) and specificity (66.1%). Conclusion: The EuMaRCS score represents a validated tool to predict preoperatively difficult L-TME in LARC patients. ER -