MDAnderson -- When administered before chemoradiation, the common anti-cancer drug cisplatin neither improved disease-free survival nor reduced the number of colostomies needed when compared to the standard treatment for patients with anal canal cancer, according to a study published in the April 23 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. In the largest cooperative phase III randomized controlled trial of its kind, a multicenter research team led by Jaffer Ajani, M.D., professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, compared the standard treatment regimen of fluorouracil plus mitomycin and radiotherapy to fluorouracil plus cisplatin and radiotherapy in 644 patients with anal canal cancer. The five-year disease-free survival rate was 60 percent in the mitomycin-based group and 54 percent in the cisplatin-based group. The five-year overall survival rate was 75 percent in patients receiving mitomycin versus 70 percent receiving cisplatin, with more cancer-related deaths in the cisplatin-based group (54 patients) compared to mitomycin-based group (28 patients).
