Lateral lymph node dissection in clinical stage 2–3 mid and lower rectal cancer: is there a clinical benefit?

We have read with great interest the paper recently published by Fujita et al. (1) on Annals of Surgery reporting the 5-year oncologic results of a multicenter, randomized controlled, noninferiority trial comparing mesorectal excision with or without lateral lymph node dissection (LLND) for lower rectal cancer.