Fang C, Nie P, Jing P, et al. - Researchers conducted this retrospective study of prospectively gathered data to determine if there is an impact of anastomotic leakage on oncologic outcomes in patients suffering from rectal cancer. Participants were patients who had curative resection for primary rectal cancer. The overall incidence of anastomotic leakage was estimated to be 2.7% (107/3865). Increased local recurrence rate and poorer overall survival were revealed in relation to anastomotic leakage, in multivariate analysis. Findings demonstrate that anastomotic leakage was robustly related to local recurrence, while also potentially impacting long-term survival of the patient group. In cases with advanced rectal cancer, poorer survival may be partially attributable to delayed or cancelled adjuvant therapy administration because of anastomotic leakage.