Results of preoperative external beam therapy of rectal cancer: experience of the Russian Scientific Center of Roentgenoradiology

Preoperative radiotherapy (PORT) has become an integral part of the treatment strategy for patients with rectal cancer (RCC), especially its effectiveness has been justified in the treatment of locally advanced forms of cancer. PORT allows to improve the results of surgical treatment in the form of increased survival rates and the frequency of organ-preserving operations. At the same time, widespread use of three-dimensional conformal remote radiation therapy techniques allowed to significantly reduce the incidence and severity of post-radiation complications both in early and late periods, which undoubtedly affected the quality of life of patients and tolerability of multimodal treatment technologies. In this article we would like to share our own results of PORT application in RCC patients. We analyzed the results of treatment of 128 RPC patients, with a median follow-up of 29 months, 3-year actuarial overall survival (OS) was 83.9% ± 4.0%, 3-year actuarial disease- specific survival (DSS) was 87.1% ± 3.7%, 3-year actuarial recurrence-free survival was 77.8% ± 4.3%. The 3-year actuarial survival rate without locoregional progression was 90.7% ± 3.2%. The 3-year OS rate in the group of patients whose pre-treatment maximum primary tumor diameter was≤ 5 cm compared to tumors> 5 cm was statistically significantly higher 90.9% vs. 75.7% (p=0.006), and the 3-year OSR reached 95.4% vs. 75.7% (p=0.005). In both early and late periods, there were no post radiation reactions of grade 3 or higher. No isolated local and regional recurrences were observed. Progression of the tumor process was associated predominantly with distant metastasis.