ArticleFrontiers in oncology2025
Efficacy and toxicity of neoadjuvant radiotherapy with concomitant dose escalation for rectal cancer.
Article in Frontiers in oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a neoadjuvant radiotherapy regimen featuring a concomitant dose escalation regimen, followed by surgery, in patients with rectal cancer. Methods: We reviewed the clinical records of rectal cancer patients who received neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy alone with a concomitant dose escalation regimen (55-56 Gy) between October 2012 and January 2019. Chemotherapy regimens included capecitabine monotherapy or capecitabine combined with oxaliplatin. Surgery was performed 8-10 weeks after radiotherapy. Primary endpoints included the pathological complete response (pCR) rate and sphincter preservation rate. We also analyzed the impact of radiotherapy-to-surgery interval on pCR rates. Disease-free survival (DFS) was compared between pCR and non-pCR patients. Results: A total of 415 patients were included, with 14 patients received radiotherapy alone. Following neoadjuvant therapy with concomitant dose escalation and subsequent surgery, 99 patients achieved pCR, yielding a pCR rate of 23.9%. A complete primary tumor response (ypT0) was observed in 105 patients (a TpCR rate of 25.3%), while a nodal complete response (ypN0) was achieved in 335 patients (an NpCR rate of 80.2%). Among the 369 patients who underwent lymph node dissection, 295 achieved NpCR. Sphincter preservation was achieved in 359 (86.5%) patients The incidence of grade 3 or higher acute hematologic, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary toxicities was 9.7%, 4.2%, and 1.5%, respectively. With a median follow-up of 5.06 years, an interval between radiotherapy and surgery > 10 weeks was associated with a higher pCR rate (p=0.037) after adjusting for age and sex. Patients achieving pCR demonstrated significantly better DFS compared to non-pCR patients (83.33% vs. 62.55%, p=0.0224), and this difference remained significant in stage III patients (79.15% vs. 58.35%, p=0.0308). Conclusion: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with concomitant dose escalation yields high pCR rates for both primary tumor and nodal disease, with acceptable toxicity, in a significant number of patients with rectal cancer. Presence of pCR is associated with markedly improved DFS. Moreover, prolonged interval between neoadjuvant radiotherapy and surgery correlates with elevated pCR rates.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.