About the Author s. The Author s. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Anal cancer is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in low- and middle-income countries LMICs.
Aim: A retrospective analysis to understand presentation and outcomes of patients with anal cancer, who were treated with a curative intent. Methods: Medical records of patients with invasive squamous cell carcinoma SCC of the anal canal who were treated between and were reviewed with follow-up until June The 2D-radiotherapy planning and delivery techniques were used to a dose of 50 Gy, with a boost dose of 6 Gy β 10 Gy for patients with residual disease and concurrent chemotherapy.
Results: Eighty-four patients were included in the analysis. Eighty-seven percent had locally advanced stage three disease. Complete clinical response was observed in 54 out of 66 evaluable patients Overall survival at 2 years could not be determined because of a significant loss to follow-up rate. Conclusion: A high HIV-postive rate and an advanced disease stage were observed among cohorts with anal canal SCC treated with a definitive curative intent. Tumour response rates at 6 months were favourable although the 2-year overall survival could not be established.
Contribution: This study contributes to the growing body of research on anal cancer outcomes in LMICs. Keywords: anal cancer; squamous cell carcinoma; chemotherapy; chemoradiation; HIV; antiretroviral therapy; mitomycin; HPV. Squamous cell carcinoma of the anus SCCA represents the most common histological form of anal carcinoma and its incidence is increasing worldwide, especially among persons living with HIV. Omission of MMC reduces haematological adverse reactions, but is associated with a decreased primary tumour control rate.
To gain insight into our institutional results for clinical response rates, and to evaluate trends in outcomes and adverse reactions for patients treated with a curative intent between and , a retrospective analysis was performed. Data were captured from the medical records of 84 patients with histologically proven invasive anal carcinoma treated with a curative intent between 01 January and 31 December at the Radiation Oncology Department at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital CMJAH , South Africa with follow-up recorded until 30 June The HIV-status and baseline cluster of differentiation 4 CD4 count were determined at the base hospital as part of the diagnostic work-up.
