NOTE

🌱 created from: nigro_protocol

role_of_mitomycin

The need for mitomycin in curative treatment of anal cancer was addressed in a joint trial from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) in which 310 patients with anal cancer of any tumor or nodal stage were randomly assigned to combined modality therapy with or without mitomycin (using the Wayne State regimen) [4].

• Patients who received mitomycin had significantly better four-year colostomy-free survival (71 versus 59 percent) and disease-free survival (73 versus 51 percent),
• but pathologic complete response rates and overall survival were similar. Grade 4 toxicity (23 versus 7 percent) and fatal neutropenic sepsis (4 versus 1 patient) were significantly more common in the mitomycin group.

The authors concluded that, despite greater toxicity, the use of mitomycin in a definitive complete response regimen for anal cancer was justified.