title: Correlation of different 5-FU regimens and time to surgery with pathological complete response in locally advanced rectal cancer patients treated by pre-operative chemo-radiation.
abstract: The best pre-operative chemo-radiation regimen has still to be defined for patients with rectal cancer. We retrospectively performed a study comprised of 26 patients with T3/4 adenocarcinoma of the rectum. Eleven patients received concurrent protracted venous 5-FU infusion (PVI), 11 had bolus, 1 had 4-day infusions, and 3 did not receive concurrent chemotherapy. All patients underwent surgical resection. Different variables were analyzed in relation to pathologic complete response (pCR) and survival. The use of PVI is associated with a higher pCR rate (45.5% vs. 6.7%, p = 0.054) and a trend towards less proportion of death (p =0.091), but no difference in overall survival (p = 0.439). Patients in the PVI group received a higher total 5-FU dose during radiation (p < 0.001) and had a longer delay between radiation and surgery (p = 0.002). Further study with a larger patient population is needed to confirm our observation.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA.
authors.forename: Roscoe
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Manoj
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Freeman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D005472:Fluorouracil