Rectal cancer patients treated with a new combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy (RT) before undergoing surgery have an 88% chance of surviving the cancer three years following treatment, according to trial results being presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting.
The new treatment, combining chemotherapy with five weeks of radiotherapy for a total dose of 50 Gy, was evaluated in a randomized clinical trial involving 598 patients and 50 hospitals in France. Patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who enrolled in the Action Clinique Coordonnées en cancérologie Digestive (ACCORD 12) phase III trial received either the new treatment (called Capox50) or a different combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for a total dose of 45 Gy (called Cap45) between 2005 and 2008.
The Capox50 treatment did not significantly increase recurrence or survival overall, but the increase of radiation dose from 45 to 50 Gy during a five-week treatment regime was effective and well-tolerated. It also reduces the risk of cancer recurrence to less than 5%, according to Dr. Jean Pierre Gerard, a radiation oncologist at Centre Antoine-Lacassagne in Nice, France.
Gerard will present additional details of the clinical trial and patient outcomes on October 3 in Miami Beach, FL, during a plenary session at the ASTRO meeting.
