PRE-OPERATIVE RADIOCHEMOTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF ADVANCED RECTAL CANCER: A NEW PROTOCOL
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
The recent neoadjuvant treatments by combined use of chemoterapy, radiotherapy or a combination of both before surgical treatment, has changed the histologic features of the surgical specimens. Therefore, the neoadjuvant therapies may affect the natural history of tumour, by decreasing the volume of the tumour, reducing the percentage of compromised lymph nodes, sterilizing the area where the tumour should be surgically treated, and cleaning any neoplastic residue. The concept of "down staging" is emerged, meaning an improvement of the behaviour of the tumour at the surgical time. In the present work, we show the efficacy and the toxicity of new radiosensitive drugs, specifically oral fluoropyrimidines (capacitabine), in a group of 47 patients studied in our unit.
Downloads
Citations
How to Cite
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.