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. 2025 Sep 29;16(1):1753.
doi: 10.1007/s12672-025-03588-8.

Predictive factors of pathologic good response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer

Yi-En Lin  1   2 , Tung-Hao Chang  1 , Tsai-Wei Chou  1 , Jin-Ching Lin  1   3   4 , Li-Chung Hung  1 , Chia-Chun Huang  1 , Jhen-Bin Lin #  5 , Jie Lee #  6   7
Affiliations

Predictive factors of pathologic good response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer

Yi-En Lin et al. Discov Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: For patients with T3/T4N0, T(any)N+, or locally unresectable rectal cancer, the treatment approach involves preoperative chemoradiation (CRT) followed by radical surgical resection. Our objective was to identify the predictive factors associated with favorable pathologic response in these individuals.

Methods: We analyzed data from patients diagnosed with primary rectal cancer who underwent preoperative chemoradiation (CRT) followed by radical surgery at Changhua Christian Hospital. Information regarding patient demographics, clinical and pathological characteristics, laboratory data collected at baseline and during CRT, as well as perioperative details, was extracted from medical records. These patients were categorized into good-responder and poor-responder groups. We employed Kaplan-Meier curve analysis to evaluate overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), and logistic regression to assess the variables related to treatment response.

Results: Overall, 98 patients were enrolled. A strong pathological response to preoperative CRT correlated with improved OS and DFS among patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. The introduction of simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) in long-course radiotherapy (RT) enhanced the pathological response while maintaining manageable acute toxicity.

Conclusions: Implementing SIB in long-course RT enhances treatment response while maintaining acceptable acute toxicity. Further studies are required to identify additional predictive factors.

Keywords: Neo-adjuvant therapy; Pathologic response; Preoperative chemoradiotherapy; Primary rectal cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study complied with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (revised in 2013). The Institutional Review Board of Changhua Christian Hospital approved the study (IRB No. 200812). Given the retrospective nature of the study, the need for individual informed consent to participate was waived by the IRB. Consent for publication: For potentially identifying information and images of human participants included in this article, written informed consent for publication was obtained from the individual(s). Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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