Pre-operative chemoradiotherapy with oral capecitabine in locally advanced, resectable rectal cancer.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of pre-operative chemoradiotherapy with oral capecitabine in Greek patients with locally advanced, resectable rectal cancer.

Materials And Methods: Thirty patients, 16 men and 14 women with a median age of 58 years (range, 21-75 years), with potentially resectable T3NO (30%), T3N1 (53%) and T4NO-1 (17%) rectal cancer, were treated with capecitabine (825 mg/m(2), twice daily for 7 days/week) and concomitant radiotherapy (50.4 Gy/28 fractions) for 5.