PURPOSE The survival of patients with local-regional adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or esophagogastric junction (EGJ) treated with preoperative chemoradiation is much better in patients with pathologic complete response than those with residual tumor. Some adenocarcinomas have mixed patterns, including signet-ring cell and mucinous histology, but the clinical significance of these subtypes is ...

OBJECTIVE Preoperative chemoradiation is becoming standard of care for locally advanced esophageal cancer. The objective of this study was to determine if the degree of pathologic response to preoperative chemoradiation could predict survival and recurrence after resection in patients with adenocarcinoma of the distal esophagus. METHODS Between January 1998 and December 2001, 366 patients und...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate long-term oncologic outcomes after concurrent chemoradiation treatment for anal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between January 1979 and December 2008, the records of 50 consecutive patients with anal cancer and who were treated by chemoradiation or radiation only with a curative intent were retrospectively reviewed. The oncologic outcomes and the r...

To understand one of the mechanisms of resistance to chemoradiation in colon cancer cells, we investigated whether 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) mediated the expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and modified repair of radiation-induced DNA damage, especially in a p53 independent pathway. Cytotoxicity was determined for 5-FU combined with radiation for three colon cancer cell lines that...

BACKGROUND Few cases of pouch-related cancers have been reported in ulcerative colitis (UC), and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is very rare. METHOD A systematic review of the literature was performed to identify all unequivocal cases of pouch-related SCC in UC patients. RESULTS Eight cases of SCC developing after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) have been observed since 1978. Two arose f...

OBJECTIVES Chemoradiation is the treatment of choice for squamous carcinoma of the anal canal, resulting in the same local control rates as surgery but with the advantage of organ function preservation. We aimed to review all cases of anal canal carcinoma treated at Groote Schuur Hospital between 2000 and 2004 and to assess treatement outcome. METHODS The records for 31 patients presenting du...

Total glossectomy has significant morbidity in terms of intelligible speech, mastication, swallowing, and in some cases, aspiration. Consequently many centers treat advanced tongue cancer with chemoradiation therapy and reserve surgery for treatment failures. Total glossectomy is however a very good primary treatment for carefully selected patients, especially in centers that do not offer chemo...

The standard treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer is neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by radical proctectomy with total mesorectal excision. A significant percentage of patients exhibit a pathological complete response with associated survival benefit. The management of patients who exhibit a complete clinical response after neoadjuvant chemoradiation, and could potentially avoid maj...

There has been a high local recurrence rate in rectal cancer. Besides improvements in surgical techniques, both neoadjuvant short-course radiotherapy and long-course chemoradiation improve oncological results. Approximately 40-60% of rectal cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation achieve some degree of pathologic response. However, there is no effective method of predicting whic...

BACKGROUND Concurrent chemoradiation is becoming an increasingly popular treatment for patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer. The full extent of treatment related complications has not been completely documented in the literature. METHODS We present the case of a patient treated with definitive intensity modulated radiation therapy and concurrent carboplatin and fluorouracil for...