The study group comprised 13 patients (mean age 68 years) with clinically fixed and biopsy proven moderately differentiated rectal adenocarcinoma (8 high rectal, 5 low-mid rectal) who received synchronous courses of preoperative combination chemotherapy and pelvic radiotherapy (radiotherapy alone in 3 cases) over a period of 8-20 weeks prior to surgical resection. All cases showed varying degre...

BACKGROUND Pharyngocutaneous fistula (PCF) is the most common surgical complication after total laryngectomy. Controversy still remains regarding the multiple risk factors implicated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential risk factors for PCF. METHODS The strategy for our literature survey included research in MEDLINE up to December 2013. The risk factors analyzed were age, ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this retrospective study was to identify factors predictive of survival in rectal cancer patients who received surgery with curative intent after preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT). MATERIALS AND METHODS Between July 1996 and June 2010, 104 patients underwent surgery for rectal cancer after preoperative CRT. The median dose of radiotherapy was 50.4 Gy (range, 43.2 to ...

AIMS To investigate the immunohistochemical expression of p53 and bcl-2 proteins in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oesophagus and to assess whether expression of these oncoproteins can be used to stratify patients into groups with a favourable or unfavourable response to preoperative chemo/radiotherapy. METHODS The initial diagnostic biopsy and the corresponding resected samples were ob...

BACKGROUND To assess the long term clinical outcome of preoperative radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy followed by limb sparing surgery in patients with non-metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the extremities. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty patients with locally advanced STS were retrospectively analyzed. The median tumor diameter was 12 cm. All patients were treated with preoperativ...

Objective: Primary intracranial choriocarcinoma is a rare intracranial neoplasm. We discuss its clinical features and treatment in a pediatric population. Methods: We retrospectively studied choriocarcinoma cases in our center from May 2002 to January 2015. Eight patients were diagnosed with primary intracranial choriocarcinoma and included. Preand post-operative CT and MRI were examined and bl...

OBJECTIVE To highlight the current understanding of the epidemiology, clinicopathological characteristics, and management of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the bladder, as it accounts for 2-5% of bladder tumours, with a focus on non-bilharzial-associated SCC (NB-SCC). The standard treatment for bladder SCC remains radical cystectomy (RC). We present an updated clinical profile of bladder SCC ...

Treatment of advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) requires the integration of multimodal approaches. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of tumor sensitivity to preoperative radiotherapy/chemotherapy for OSCC in order to allow oncologists to determine optimum therapeutic strategies without the associated adverse effects. Here, the protein expression profiles of formalin-fix...

BACKGROUND Expression of epidermal growth factor receptor is observed in 50 - 70% of colorectal carcinomas and is associated with poor prognosis. The objective of this study was to analyze whether epidermal growth factor receptor expression predicts tumor response and sphincter preserving in patients treated with preoperative chemoradiation therapy. METHODS This study was conducted on 34 pati...

PURPOSE To demonstrate the feasibility of preoperative Hyperfractionated Accelerated RadioTherapy (preop-HART) in rectal cancer and to explain the rationales to switch from postoperative HART to preoperative HART. METHODS AND MATERIALS Fifty-two consecutive patients were introduced in successive Phase I trials since 1989. In trial 89-01, postoperative HART (48 Gy in 3 weeks) was applied in 20...