Anal canal carcinoma: experience from a single Korean institution

The clinical features, treatment modality approaches in clinical practice, and prognostic factors for anal canal carcinoma patients were retrospectively analyzed.

Between October 1994 and December 2005, 50 patients with anal canal cancer were treated at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.

After a median follow up of 37.8 months (range, 6.6-136.1 months), the 5-year and 10-year survival rates for the 38 patients with early and locally advanced squamous and cloacogenic carcinoma (squamous cell carcinoma and cloacogenic carcinoma) were 74.8% and 66.5%, respectively. The 5-year survival and disease-free survival rates (DFS) of the 31 patients who received chemoradiation therapy (CRT) were 83.6% and 74.3%, respectively. The overall and DFS could not be determined for the adenocarcinoma group due to the small number of cases (n=8). Univariate analysis showed that tumor size (p=0.04) and inguinal node status (p=0.04) significantly influenced patient survival in patients with squamous cell and cloacogenic carcinomas. Furthermore, univariate analysis also showed that, inguinal node status influenced patient survival in the adenocarcinoma group. Multivariate analysis showed that inguinal node metastasis is a single independent prognostic variable for survival (p=0.04) in patients with squamous cell and cloacogenic carcinomas.

Combined CRT has been adopted as standard treatment with outcomes that are comparable to those reported in randomized clinical trials. Due to the rarity and complexity of anal canal carcinoma, interdepartmental cooperation is required for disease treatment. Thus, proper treatment of patients should incorporate a team-approach and should be available to as many patients as possible.