Return to Intended Oncological Therapy: State of the Art and Perspectives

Despite advances in surgical procedures, cancer recurrence still affects a substantial proportion of patients for whom surgery is considered a curative therapy. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of RIOT, addressing its definition, influencing factors, and clinical implications.

RIOT can be defined as a continuous variable as the time from surgery to initiation of adjuvant therapies or categorically as whether patients can successfully receive adjuvant therapies or not. Factors influencing RIOT are age, sex, socioeconomic status, access to healthcare, physical performance and comorbidities, and quality of anesthesia and surgical care.

Adjuvant therapies such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy are often administered to reduce the risk of recurrence after surgery and improve survival. Return to intended oncologic therapy (RIOT) has emerged as a promising outcome metric reflecting patients’ functional recovery after surgery and their ability to receive adjuvant therapies.