Adding Low Dose Chemotherapy to Preoperative Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: Retrospective Analysis of an Institutional Experience

Copyright © 2018 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Cite this article: Roy S, Lahiri D, Ray DK, Maji T, Devleena, Chaudhuri P. Adding Low Dose Chemotherapy to Preoperative Radiotherapy in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: Retrospective Analysis of an Institutional Experience. OGH Reports. 2018;7(2):86-90. ABSTRACT Objective: Analysis was done to assess the implications and effectivity of adding chemotherapy to preoperative radiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer. It was priority to observe any change in resectibility with combined treatment. Methods: Twenty five patients were randomized to undergo neoadjuvant chemoradiation and were compared head on with only radiation group for locally advanced rectal cancer patients in CNCI, Kolkata. Results: Of the 25 patients in the chemoradiation arm, 20 patients (80%) were potentially resectable. In the radiation only group the number was 16 (64%). [p=0.35] Curative resection with negative margins was possible in 17 patients (68%) in the combined modality arm, as opposed to 13 patients (52%) in the other arm. [p=0.39] The failure rates in the radiation group were higher. [p= 0.49] Median Overall Survival was higher in chemoradiation group (14 months vs. 11 months) as well as median Disease free survival (14 months vs. 12 months) (p = 0.99) in comparison to only radiation group. Conclusion: As a beginner’s experience, it was very encouraging to observe the positive trend of the study and effectively this study allowed us to further proceed with different dose and schedule modulation of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to build up a definitive protocol for locally advanced Rectal cancer in our institute.