BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a high dose of oral tegafur-uracil (400 mg/m2) plus leucovorin with preoperative chemoradiation of locally advanced rectal cancer and to explore the impact of polymorphisms of cytochrome P 2A6 (CYP2A6), uridine monophosphate synthetase (UMPS), and ATP-binding cassette B1 (ABCB1) on clinical outcome. METHODS Patients with cT3 or cT4 recta...

PURPOSE There are no reliable prognostic markers that identify gastric cancer patients who may benefit from adjuvant chemoradiation therapy. E2F-1 was shown to be associated with radiosensitivity and chemosensitivity in certain tumor types. Therefore, we analyzed expression and prognostic significance of E2F-1 along with thymidylate synthase (TS) in R(0)-resected gastric adenocarcinoma patients...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to assess our results of treatment of women with stage I cervical cancer>2 cm in diameter seeking fertility preservation. Treatment consisted of Laparoscopic Pelvic and Paraaortic Lymphadenectomy (LPPLND), and when no nodal metastasis was detected, neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) followed by radical vaginal trachelectomy (RVT). Patients with positive lymph nod...

INTRODUCTION Treatment of rectal cancer requires a multidisciplinary approach with standardized surgical, pathological and radiotherapeutic procedures. Sphincter preserving surgery for cancer of the lower rectum needs a long-course of neoadjuvant treatments to reduce tumor volume, to induce down-staging that increases circumferential resection margin, and to facilitate surgery. AIM To evaluat...

6032 Background: Excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) is a gene coding for the nucleotide excision repair complex. Its increased expression and polymorphism at codon 118 have been linked to poor response to chemotherapy or chemoradiation in several types of cancer. ERCC1 removes the cisplatin adducts on the DNA of cells and its polymorphism appears to be a marker of chemotherap...

AIMS AND BACKGROUND Multimodal therapy is a keystone of care in advanced esophageal cancer. Although neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is known to provide a survival advantage in selected cases, reliable prognostic and response predictive factors remain elusive. We report the outcome in a series of esophageal cancer patients treated at our center and the results of a retrospective analysis of epide...

The role of pretreatment dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion MR imaging (DCE-PWI) and diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) in predicting the treatment response of oropharyngeal or hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OHSCC) to chemoradiation remains unclear. We prospectively investigated the ability of pharmacokinetic parameters derived from pretreatment DCE-PWI and DWI to predict the local c...

The clinical usefulness of pretreatment imaging techniques for predicting neck control in patients with oropharyngeal or hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OHSCC) treated with chemoradiation remains unclear. In this prospective study, we investigated the role of pretreatment dynamic contrast-enhanced perfusion MR imaging (DCE-PWI), diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI), and [18F]fluorodeoxyg...

BACKGROUND Preoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer result in changes to the vessels that are used to construct microsurgical anastomoses. The aim of the study was to investigate quantitative changes and HSP70 expression of irradiated neck recipient vessels and transplant vessels used for microsurgical anastomoses. METHODS Of 20 patients included in thi...

OBJECTIVE To describe the functional outcomes of weight loss and eating following a targeted chemoradiation protocol consisting of a selective supradose of intra-arterial cisplatin (150 mg/m2 per week for 4 weeks) with parenteral sodium thiosulfate and external-beam irradiation (1.8-2.0 Gy per fraction per day for 35 days). SUBJECTS AND DESIGN Forty-seven patients with advanced head and neck ...