Objective: To review treatment outcomes for patients with locoregional recurrent colon cancer who underwent resection, intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT), and external beam radiotherapy (EBRT).
Design: Retrospective study of patients treated between January 1990 and June 1994.
Setting: Tertiary care cancer center.
Patients: Eleven patients with bulky recurrent colon cancer extending to adjacent organs or structures signed informed consent forms to receive IORT.
Intervention: Of 10 patients who underwent exploratory laparotomy, 5 had no metastatic disease and underwent resection, IORT, and EBRT. Complete resection was accomplished in 4 patients. Doses of IORT ranged from 13 to 20 Gy depending on residual tumor burden; EBRT was typically delivered postoperatively to a dose of 45 Gy.
Main outcome measures: Survival and locoregional tumor control.
Results: All 4 patients who underwent complete resection, IORT, and EBRT are alive without locoregional recurrence 53 to 77 months after treatment. Of these, only 1 patient developed distant metastases. The fifth patient, who had gross residual tumor, developed local recurrence 5 months after IORT. One patient developed an IORT complication-ureteral fibrosis leading to ipsilateral nephrectomy.
Conclusion: Long-term disease-free survival can be achieved in selected patients with bulky regional recurrence of colon cancer with complete tumor resection, IORT, and EBRT.