Abstract
Purpose: To validate a nomogram for the prediction of treatment outcomes after preoperative radiochemotherapy and surgery for locally advanced rectal cancer with a cohort of patients treated with additional deep regional hyperthermia.
Patients and methods: A total of 86 patients were treated with preoperative radiochemotherapy and deep regional hyperthermia at our institution. For every patient, the 5-year probability for death, distant metastases and local failure based on a previously published nomogram were calculated and patients were divided into three risk groups.
Results: Low-lying and clinically lymph node positive tumours were more frequent in the validation cohort. Five-year Kaplan–Meier estimates for overall survival (OS), distant metastases-free survival (DMFS) and local control (LC) were 87.3%, 79.9%, 95.8% (observed) and 75.5%, 71%, 90% (predicted), respectively. Discrimination between low- and high-risk groups was at a significant level for all endpoints. The c-index was 0.81 (OS), 0.67 (DMFS) and 0.92 (LC), respectively.
Conclusions: The nomogram showed reasonable performance when deep regional hyperthermia is incorporated into preoperative therapy. The higher than predicted rates seen for OS and DMFS in particular in the high-risk groups warrant further prospective validation and subsequent investigation of the underlying mechanisms.
Acknowledgements
Cihan Gani is supported by the Clinician Scientist Program of the Medical Faculty, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen [Funding number: 363–0-0]. We thank Joge Jossy Tonison for English language editing.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.