Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc (ADXS)

[Donjayouworry]

This...
“Background: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is the standard of care for squamous cell cancer of the anal canal (SCCA). Optimizing outcomes is likely to depend on a number of factors. Identification of factors portending treatment failure is critical. Methods: Data on patients with SCCA treated at the Cleveland Clinic were reviewed. Log-rank analysis was used to identify factors predictive of treatment failure, disease recurrence, and survival. Results: Between 9/83 and 3/07, 99 patients with SCCA were treated at our institution. Median age was 57 years. 63% were women, 98% had an ECOG score of 0–1, 53% were smokers, 29% had clinical node positive disease, and 50% had T3/4 tumors. With a median follow-up of 12.6 years, the median disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) have not been reached. 5-year DFS is 70% and 5-year OS is 72%. Significant treatment-related skin toxicity was reported in 62% of patients. 13 patients were hospitalized for neutropenic fever. Two developed TTP/HUS after mitomycin therapy. Persistent disease was more frequent in patients with N2/3 disease (vs. N0/1, p = .046). Higher ECOG performance status, interruption of radiation, T3/4 disease, N2/3 disease, and skin toxicity during treatment were each associated with significantly increased recurrence rates (all p <0.05). Patients with advanced T stage had a worse overall survival (p=0.02), while patients with BMI ≥ 25 had a better overall survival (p=0.04)”