Otherwise the standard of care for the treatment of anal cancer in the HIV+ population remains concurrent MMC or cisplatin plus 5FU with concomitant RT. This treatment still holds the most promise for cure with sphincter preservation in the HIV+ patient. Footnotes No potential conflict of interest.
Colon cancer is a highly prevalent Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical disease and the fourth most common

cause of cancer death in western countries (1). The currently accepted standard of care in locally advanced colon cancer (LACC) is complete surgical excision followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. This approach achieves ZSTK474 clinical trial 5-year survival rates varying from 73% to 28%, depending on the stage III subgroup analyzed (2). Several recent trials have been developed in order to assess the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in LACC (3-5), resembling its use in other locally advanced tumors (6,7). Besides the risk of tumor progression Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical during the induction therapy, one of the most important challenges of this approach is the accuracy of baseline computed tomography (CT) Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical scan to properly select patients who may benefit most from this strategy. The scarce available data in this setting is partly responsible for the lack of a more widespread use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, despite its several theoretical benefits. The aim of the present study is to assess the accuracy of CT scan in the staging

of these patients and to correlate radiological, metabolic Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and pathological changes found after preoperative oxaliplatin and fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy. Material and methods The study included patients with LACC who completed preoperative chemotherapy and surgery within a tertiary center. Eligibility and exclusion criteria have been reported elsewhere (5). Eligibility criteria included age >18 years, diagnosis of adenocarcinoma by biopsy, Karnofsky performance status >60% or ECOG <2, Haemoglobin >10 g/dL, white blood cell >3.0×109/L, Total Bilirubin <25 mcromol/L, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical glomerular filtration

rate >50 mL/min, absence of important comorbidity, and able and willing to provide written informed consent for the study. Radiological signs of suspicious lymph nodes and/or transmural depth invasion by CT were mandatory. Rectal tumours, also distant metastases, peritoneal carcinomatosis by CT or positron emission tomography (PET)/CT scan, and complete colonic obstruction were considered exclusion criteria. All patients received induction chemotherapy with oxaliplatin and capecitabine on a biweekly basis. The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board. The clinical staging was based on physical examination, colonoscopy with biopsy confirmation, and thoracoabdominopelvic CT scan. In fourteen patients, a whole-body 18Fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG) PET-CT scan was also available. CT scan protocol The patients were examined using a multidetector CT (MDCT) Scanner Siemens 64 (Erlangen, Germany).