OBJECTIVES To review the clinical outcome of locally advanced rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by definitive surgery with or without adjuvant chemotherapy and to elucidate the prognostic factors for treatment outcome. METHODS This historical cohort study was conducted at a tertiary public hospital in Hong Kong. All patients who had undergone neoadjuvant chemoradi...

INTRODUCTION This study reports the outcomes of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by surgery in a local population of Singapore. MATERIALS AND METHODS The records of 85 patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiation for locally advanced rectal cancer followed by surgery at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) between November 2002 an...

BACKGROUND Induction chemotherapy is a common therapeutic option for patients with locoregionally-advanced head and neck cancer (HNC), but it remains unclear which patients will benefit. In this study, we searched for biomarkers predicting the response of patients with locoregionally-advanced HNC to induction chemotherapy by evaluating the expression pattern of DNA repair proteins. METHODS Ex...

BACKGROUND Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy does not alter anal sphincter preservation or postoperative complications compared with short-course radiotherapy alone in patients with clinical stage T3 or T4 resectable rectal cancer. The aim of this study was to compare survival, local control and late toxicity in the two treatment groups. METHODS The study randomized 312 patients to receive either...

OBJECTIVE Concurrent chemoradiation has improved survival of patients with cervical carcinoma. However, follow-up of randomized studies is relatively short and data on long term toxicity are scarce, as is information on their health-related quality of life. This study assesses and compares incidences of late side-effects among patients treated with radiotherapy or chemoradiation using two toxic...

PURPOSE To compare efficacy in terms of pathologic response in LARC patients treated with preoperative chemoradiation, with or without a short-intense course of induction oxaliplatin. PATIENTS AND METHODS From 05/98 to 10/02, 114 patients were treated with preoperative chemoradiation (4500-5040 cGy + oral Tegafur 1200 mg/day) for cT(3)-(4)N(+/x)M(0) rectal cancer. Starting 05/01, 52 consecuti...

Neoadjuvant treatment in terms of preoperative radiotherapy reduces local recurrence in rectal cancer, but this improvement has little if any impact on overall survival. Currently performed optimal quality-controlled total mesorectal excision (TME) surgery for patients in the trial setting can be associated with very low local recurrence rates of less than 10% whether the patients receive radio...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS After concurrent chemoradiation for head and neck squamous cell cancer, patients with laryngeal incompetence may not recover function. We assessed variables predicting tracheostomy dependence as a measure of poor laryngeal function after chemoradiation. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective METHODS Analysis of 109 patients treated with chemoradiation for locoregionally advanced l...

A 56-year-old manwith pancreatic cancer underwent palliative placement of a biliary self-expanding metallic stent (SEMS) for obstructive jaundice after chemoradiation (nine cycles over 5 months). He presentedwithmelena but denied abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, or hematemesis. Hemoglobin concentration was 6.5g/dL and serum bilirubin 1.0mg/dL (normal: 13.8–17.2g/dL and <1.9mg/dL, respectively)....

OBJECTIVE To compare the quality of life (QoL) of patients who underwent total laryngectomy with voice prosthesis insertion and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) with those receiving concurrent chemoradiation for laryngeal preservation. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective, cross-sectional study in a tertiary academic center. METHODS The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Qual...