Klin Onkol 1998; 11(4): 120-122.
Summary: Therapeutic results of accelerated pre-operative hypoxyradiotherapy of 30 patients with rectal carcinoma treated from April 1991 till February 1995 are presented. The stage of disease was classified as Dukes A in one patient, B2 in 20. Cl in 3 and C2 in 6 patients. Radiotherapy was performed using a linear accelerator 20 MeV during acute hypoxia elicited by inhalation of a hypoxic gas mixture containing 7.8-8.0% of oxygen. The dose was fractiotted to 4 Gy per day. According to the radiotherapy schedule, patients were subdivided into three groups: A. 24 Gy/8 days -5 patients, B. 28 Gy/9 days- 17 patients, C. 32 Gy/10 days - 7 patients. Surgical treatment (abdominoperineal amputation or low anterior resection of the rectum) followed just the next day after completion of radiotherapy. The results were statistically evaluated by Kaplan-Meyer method. The median follow-up in the whole group was 48 months. Five-year survival reached 70%. Analysis of treatment failures showed twice as many distant metastases compared to pelvic recurrences. Preliminary evaluation of therapeutic efficacy of accelerated pre-operative hypoxiradiotherapy as a part of combined treatment signalizes its potential to decrease the local recurrence rate and improve the therapeutic outcome.
