New Perspectives on Predictive Biomarkers of Tumor Response and Their Clinical Application in Preoperative Chemoradiation Therapy for Rectal Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Preoperative chemoradiation therapy (CRT) is the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) and can improve local control and survival outcomes. However, the responses of individual tumors to CRT are not uniform and vary widely, from complete response to disease progression. Patients with resistant tumors can be exposed to irradiation and chemotherapy that are both expensive and at times toxic without benefit. In contrast, about 60% of tumors show tumor regression and T and N down-staging. Furthermore, a pathologic complete response (pCR), which is characterized by sterilization of all tumor cells, leads to an excellent prognosis and is observed in approximately 10-30% of cases. This variety in tumor response has lead to an increased need to develop a model

SUBMITTER: Kim NK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4630032 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature