The results of a recently completed Phase III clinical trial suggest that concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by tecemotide provides superior benefits to Stage IIIa and IIIb non-small cell lung carcinoma patients as compared with sequential chemoradiotherapy followed by tecemotide. These clinical observations will be dissected in a transgenic model of lung cancer that we have recently establi...

KEY CLINICAL MESSAGE Four patients with gastric cancer underwent 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery. Expression analysis of chemoradiosensitivity related genes in residual cancer using formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens may be useful when determining a chemotherapy regimen for disease recurrence after chemoradiotherapy for gastric cancer.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the long-term outcomes of selected patients with cT3 distal rectal cancer treated with local excision following pre-operative chemoradiotherapy. METHODS Between January 2003 and February 2008, 11 patients with cT3 distal rectal cancer received a local excision following pre-operative chemoradiotherapy. The median age of the patients was 61 years (range, 42-71). The me...

AIMS AND BACKGROUND To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of concurrent chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy alone in elderly patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma (stage IB2-IVA). METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 105 women aged 265 years who received radiotherapy (group I, n=61) or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (group II, n=44). Patients rec...

Historical series document the poor survival (7-16% at 5 years) for patients with N2-positive, stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with primary surgery. In 1994, two small randomized trials showed the superiority of induction chemotherapy followed by surgery over surgery alone for stage IIIA NSCLC. These findings, as well as subsequent studies showing the superiority of chemor...

In the past, women with early-stage cervical cancer have been treated with radical radiotherapy or radical surgery, and women with locally advanced disease with radical radiotherapy, each offering a good chance of cure. Numerous trials have investigated whether giving cytotoxic chemotherapy alongside radiotherapy or before local treatment could augment the established benefits of these therapie...

Even in patients undergoing an optimal surgical technique (e.g., total mesorectal excision), radiotherapy provides a significant benefit in the local control of rectal cancer. Compared with postoperative treatment, chemoradiotherapy given preoperatively has been shown to decrease local recurrence rates and toxicity. Additionally, preoperative chemoradiotherapy permits the early identification o...

Patients with deeply invading (T3-T4) oesophageal cancers usually receive chemoradiotherapy with or without surgery. However, the prognostic significance of pre-therapy and post-therapy lymph node (LN) status remains unclear. We studied 195 patients who received chemoradiotherapy for deeply invading oesophageal cancers (T3-4, N0-1, M0). Of these, 105 patients underwent surgery while 90 were tre...

Although adjuvant chemoradiotherapy has been an important part in the treatment of gastric cancer, whether or not adjuvant radiation can benefit patients undergoing resection with D2 lymph node dissection remains controversial. This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the role of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy on patients with D2-resected gastric cancer. A total of 337 patients with resected gast...