Neoadjuvant treatment with radiotherapy and radiosensitizing chemotherapy is the standard of treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). The objective of this study is to analyze the pathological response after neoadjuvant treatment. This is a descriptive and retrospective observational study in patients diagnosed with rectal adenocarcinoma from January 2018 to December 2018 at the Radiation Oncology Department of Hospital Universitario La Paz. 51 patients were included. One group of patients (82.4%) was treated with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) with a dose of 45 Gray (Gy) on the pelvis and an boost of 5.4 Gy on the primary tumor and another group (17.6 %) was treated with radiotherapy with volumetric arcotherapy technique (VMAT) and daily verification with image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) with a dose of 53.7 Gy in the pelvis with concurrent tumor boost. The oral capecitabine dose was 850 mg/m2 twice daily during treatment. All patients were reevaluated with post-neoadjuvant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The patients underwent surgery 6-8 weeks after chemoradiotherapy. Complete pathological response was of 15.6% and partial pathological response of 80.5% with an overall downstaging rate of 33%. It is concluded that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is a safe treatment with acceptable local control rates in patients with LARC with little acute toxicity.

Author Name: Ocanto A, Rodríguez I, Belinchón B, Glaría L, Morera M

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Keywords: Chemoradiotherapy; cancer; rectum; pathological response

ISSN: 2542-3428

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