[Preoperative chemoradiation therapy for advanced rectal cancer]

Preoperative concurrent chemoradiation therapy with 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin was applied for advanced rectal cancer. Eligible criteria were as follows: no previous treatment, 4 more than hemicircular occupation, T3 or more invasion to adjacent organs or lymph node metastasis on CT scan, tumor fixation by digital examination. Eleven patients were enrolled with this regimen consisting of 5-FU; 500mg/day x5/w x4, CDDP; 10mg/day X 5/w x4 and radiation; 2Gy x 5/w x 4. As a toxicity, grade 2 leukopenia in 2 cases, grade 2 GI symptoms in one case and radiation dermatitis was observed in 8 cases. As a local response, there were PR in 10 cases and NC in 1 case. Surgical resection was performed on 8 patients. Histological responses in the resected specimens were grade 2, 5 cases; grade 1b, 1 case; and grade la, 2 cases. Operative radicalities were grade A, 3 cases; grade B, 3 cases; and grade C, 2 cases. Preoperative chemoradiation is one of the effective options in multimodal treatment for advanced rectal cancer.