Background: We investigated the efficacy and prognosis of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NACRT) for Japanese locally advanced rectal carcinoma patients.
Methods: Fifty-seven patients diagnosed with cT3-4 or any cT/cN+ disease using enhanced computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging from 2002 to 2014 were enrolled. The male/female ratio was 42/15, and the median age was 67 years. Ra/Rb/Rb-P/P was expressed by 6/35/14/2 patients. Histological tumor types were tub1/tub2/por/muc in 22/30/4/1 patients. For NACRT, radiotherapy doses were 40-50.4 Gy chemotherapy consisted of 5'-DFUR, capecitabine, or S1.
Results: All 57 patients received curative surgical treatment. The anal preservation rate was 65.0%. The ypStage of 0/I/II/IIIa/IIIb was 7/10/25/11/4 cases. The histological antitumor effect (HATE) was ≥grade (G) 2 and G3 in 31 (54.4%) and 7 (12.3%) cases, respectively. Postoperative complications occurred in 17 patients and exceeded GIII (Clavien-Dindo classification) in four patients. Recurrence was observed in 19 patients; the primary local recurrence rate was 5.3%. The 3-year relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 64.8 and 95.5%, respectively; the 5-year RFS and OS rates were 60.2 and 61.0%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, ypN+ was a high-risk factor for distant organ recurrence. As predictive factors regarding the efficacy of NACRT, a neutrophil concentration <70% and a neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio <3.0 in peripheral blood prior to treatment indicated that NACRT would be significantly more effective.
Conclusions: NACRT was effective in reducing local recurrence but did not suppress distant organ recurrence in Japanese locally advanced rectal carcinoma patients. A further investigation of an extension of the NACRT regimen is required.
Keywords: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy; Rectal cancer.