Complete mesocolic excision (CME) with central vessel ligation (CVL): a new standard in colon cancer surgery

The new surgical technique of complete mesocolic excision (CME) with central vessel ligation (CVL) has been reported to lead to improvements in oncological outcomes for patients with colon cancer. Here we discuss a recent large-scale retrospective report by Bertelsen et al. that provides compelling evidence to support previously smaller and/or less well designed studies and confirms CME surgery to be oncologically superior to the traditional approach. This Danish study importantly demonstrates an approximately 10% improvement in four-year disease free survival with CME surgery for all patients with stage I-III colon cancer. These data are the first to also show that relatively small surgical advances can still lead to major improvements in cancer survival.