• Mohammed Mohiuddin, Kathryn Winter, Edith Mitchell, Nader Hanna, Albert Yuen, Charles Nichols, Robert Shane, Cherie Hayostek, Christopher Willett, and Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Trial 0012.
• Geisinger Cancer Institute, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711, USA. mmohiuddin1@geisinger.edu
• J. Clin. Oncol. 2006 Feb 1; 24 (4): 650-5.

PurposeTo evaluate the rate of pathologic complete response and toxicity of neoadjuvant chemoradiation for advanced T3/T4 distal rectal cancers in a randomized phase II studyPatients And MethodsPatients with clinical T3/T4 distal rectal cancers were randomly assigned in a phase II study to receive combined neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgical resection. Patients were randomly assigned to receive continuous venous infusion (CVI) fluorouracil (FU) 225 mg/m2 per day, 7 days per week, plus pelvic hyperfractionated radiation 55.2 to 60 Gy at 1.2 Gy bid (arm 1) or CVI FU 225 mg/m2 per day Monday to Friday, 120 hours per week plus irinotecan 50 mg/m2 once weekly for 4 weeks plus pelvic radiation therapy 50.4 to 54 Gy at 1.8 Gy per day (arm 2). Surgery was performed 4 to 10 weeks after completion of neoadjuvant therapy. The primary end point of this study was pathologic complete response (pCR). Secondary end points included acute and late normal tissue morbidity.ResultsA total of 106 patients were entered onto the study, with 103 assessable for response. The overall resectability rate was 93%. The median time to surgery was 7 weeks. Tumor downstaging was observed in 78% of patients in both arms. The pCR rate for all assessable patients was 26% in each arm. For patients who had surgery, the pCR rate was also the same (28%) in both arms. Acute and late toxicity was also similar. Grade 3 and 4 acute hematologic and nonhematologic toxicity occurred in 13% and 38% in arm 1 and 12% and 45% in arm 2, respectively.ConclusionAlthough the overall complete response rate and toxicity seems similar in both arms, this is the first multi-institutional study to establish a relatively high (28%) pCR rate after neoadjuvant therapy.

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