Background: In recent years, neoadjuvant chemoradiation and subsequent surgical resection with total mesorectal excision has been shown to increase local control with decreased toxicity. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is the standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer. In this study we evaluated the efficacy a cox-2 inhibitor on pathologic response, sphincter preservation and acute tox...

despite all advances, treatment of esophageal carcinoma is still unsatisfactory. currently the standard non-surgical treatment of esophageal cancer is concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy (chemoradiation), with results comparable to best surgical series. a few years ago, we started a chemoradiation protocol for the cancer of esophagus as a curative treatment, of which we present the prelimi...

background: in recent years, neoadjuvant chemoradiation and subsequent surgical resection with total mesorectal excision has been shown to increase local control with decreased toxicity. neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is the standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer. in this study we evaluated the efficacy a cox-2 inhibitor on pathologic response, sphincter preservation and acute tox...

BACKGROUND Although radical resection and postoperative chemoradiation have been the standard therapy for patients with rectal cancer, preoperative staging by local imaging and chemoradiation are widely used. We used a decision analysis to compare the two strategies for rectal cancer management. METHODS We developed a decision model to compare survival outcomes after postoperative chemoradiat...

Our study evaluated whether 1999 National Cancer Institute (NCI) chemoradiation guidelines for cervical cancer impacted treatment of women >/=55 years. We identified 385 women >/=55 years (median, 72 years) diagnosed with stage II-IVA cervical cancer between January, 1998 and December, 2002 in the United States Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare registries. Chemoradiati...

optimal management of low lying locally advanced rectal cancer remains a major challenge. this study was performed to evaluate the impact of preoperative external radiation therapy combined with systemic chemotherapy on sphincter preservation and local control in locally advanced low lying (<5 cm from anal verge) rectal cancer. a total of 25 consecutive patients with biopsy proven locally advan...

BACKGROUND Neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy followed by curative surgery has gained acceptance as the therapy of choice in locally advanced rectal cancer. However, deterioration of anorectal function after long-course neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy combined with surgery for rectal cancer is poorly defined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological and clinical change of anor...

OBJECTIVES While neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by surgery has been shown to improve the survival of patients with locally advanced oesophageal cancer, it is not known whether neoadjuvant chemoradiation has a beneficial or harmful effect on the non-responders. We aimed to compare the outcomes among neoadjuvant chemoradiation responders, non-responders and patients receiving primary oesopha...

Radical cystectomy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) patients frequently impairs their quality of life (QOL) due to urinary diversion. To improve their QOL, a bladder-sparing alternative strategy using chemoradiation has been developed. In bladder-sparing protocols, complete response (CR) to induction chemoradiation is a prerequisite for bladder preservation and favorable survival. Thus...