Ghosn M, Kourie HR, Abdayem P, Antoun J, Nasr D. Anal cancer treatment: Current status and future perspectives. World J Gastroenterol 2015; 21(8): 2294-2302 [PMID: 25741135 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i8.2294]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Marwan Ghosn, MD, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Monot Street, PO Box 166830, Beirut, Lebanon. mghosn.hdf@usj.edu.lb
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Marwan Ghosn, Hampig Raphael Kourie, Pamela Abdayem, Joelle Antoun, Dolly Nasr, Hematology-Oncology Department, Faculty Of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon
Author contributions: Ghosn M initiated the review; Abdayem P and Kourie HR performed the review and wrote and analyzed the data; Ghosn M, Antoun J, and Nasr D reviewed and commented on the paper and provided final approval.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Marwan Ghosn, MD, Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Saint Joseph University, Monot Street, PO Box 166830, Beirut, Lebanon. mghosn.hdf@usj.edu.lb
Telephone: +961-3-226842 Fax: +961-1-613397
Received: August 30, 2014 Peer-review started: August 31, 2014 First decision: September 27, 2014 Revised: October 24, 2014 Accepted: December 22, 2014 Article in press: December 22, 2014 Published online: February 28, 2015
Abstract
Anal cancers (AC) are relatively rare tumors. Their incidence is increasing, particularly among men who have sex with other men due to widespread infection by human papilloma virus. The majority of anal cancers are squamous cell carcinomas, and they are treated according to stage. In local and locally advanced AC, concomitant chemoradiation therapy based on mitomycin C and 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is the current best treatment, while metastatic AC, chemotherapy with 5-FU and cisplatin remains the gold standard. There are no indications for induction or maintenance therapies in locally advanced tumors. Many novel strategies, such as targeted therapies, vaccination, immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy are in clinical trials for the treatment of AC, with promising results in some indications.
Core tip: This paper will be the newest study with the most recent updates in the treatment of anal cancer. After a brief review of different treatment of localized and metastatic anal cancer, the current options as well as novel therapies and approaches in future.
