부산대학교 도서관

The treatment in locally advanced rectal cancers continues to evolve. Therefore, in the past years, patients have benefited from either neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy or total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT), the latter demonstrating improved control of systemic disease and becoming, according to guidelines, the standard treatment in carefully selected cases. Studies have shown a higher therapeutic response rate in patients receiving TNT; however, the overall surviving rate is contradictory. The choice of treatment is made on the basis of these results, but the toxicities that may occur with each therapeutic strategy are weighed against each other, and the possibility of overtreatment of certain patients is also discussed. We performed a retrospective study in which there were included patients with rectal cancer, eligible for neoadjuvant treatment, in the last three years, in the Oncology Clinic of the “Elias” University Emergency Hospital, Bucharest. The aim was to compare the therapeutic outcomes between the two treatment strategies, the overall survival, the progression-free survival and the time until progression. We also monitored the tolerance of patients in terms of toxicities for the two therapeutic approaches. We conclude that there is better therapeutic response in terms of total neoadjuvant therapy, but without large differences regarding the global survival and with variable toxicities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]