Mitomycin in anal cancer: still the standard of care

A 52-year-old woman presents with a 2-month history of bright red blood per rectum. Her bleeding is associated with bowel movements and a sense of incomplete evacuation. She denies fecal incontinence or change in stool caliber. On digital rectal examination, the tumor is palpated approximately 3 cm from the anal verge, posterior and slightly to the right, positioned at the top of the anal canal and extending into the rectum, measuring approximately 2.5 cm. Additionally, a firm 1.5-cm left-sided inguinal node is palpated. The patient is then referred for colonoscopy, which reveals a mass in the anal canal; biopsy of the mass shows squamous cell carcinoma. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) demonstrates thickening in the low rectum with [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) avidity (Figs 1A, 1B). The left inguinal node is visualized, as is a perirectal lymph node with associated FDG avidity (Figs 1C, 1D). The patient is staged as having T2N3 squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (Table 1). Her medical history is otherwise unremarkable, including for HIV, prior abnormal Papanicolaou smears, and other risk factors for human papillomavirus (HPV) exposure.