Chemoradiotherapy for anal squamous cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Anal cancer is a relatively rare cancer, making up approximately 0.4% of all new diagnoses of cancer.(1) The incidence of anal cancer, however, has increased in recent years.(2) The aim of this paper is to review current treatment of anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the most common type of anal cancer.


METHODS
This review article focuses on recent and ongoing trials studying the outcomes of various chemoradiotherapy (CRT) regimens in the treatment of anal SCC. PubMed was initially searched for relevant trials. This search was then supplemented by hand searches of reference lists and abstracts of relevant conferences.


RESULTS
CRT with mitomycin C (MMC) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) has been proven to have effective results in the treatment of anal SCC. Salvage surgery has a role in some patients in the treatment of persistent or recurrent disease beyond 26 weeks. The addition of induction or maintenance chemotherapy to CRT has not been shown to have any benefit.


CONCLUSIONS
Primary CRT with MMC and 5-FU is the current standard treatment for anal SCC. There is currently no role for induction or maintenance chemotherapy.
Department of Medicine, Beaumont Hospital, Beaumont Road, Dublin 9, Ireland.
Orla A
OA
Houlihan
Department of Radiation Oncology, St Luke's Radiation Oncology Network, Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: brian.oneill@slh.ie.
Brian D P
BD
O'Neill
D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001005:Anus Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D059248:Chemoradiotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000379:methods; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
Anal cancer; Chemotherapy; Radiotherapy; Salvage surgery; Squamous cell carcinoma