Preoperative chemoradiotherapy with oxaliplatin and tegafur-uracil in locally advanced rectal cancer: pathologic complete response rate and preliminary results of overall and disease-free survival in a single institute in Taiwan.

Background: We conducted a Phase II study of biweekly oxaliplatin plus oral tegafur-uracil in the preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for locally advanced resectable mid-to-lower rectal cancer in our hospital, to evaluate the feasibility of this drug combination in tumor pathologic response, acute toxicity, local control, disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and time to distant metastasis in an Asian cohort.

Methods: Twenty patients with histopathologically confirmed rectal cancer (Stage II-III) were enrolled in the study. Radiotherapy of 50 Gy was delivered in 25 fractions of 2 Gy, one fraction/day, five fractions/week, for 5 weeks.