Disclaimer

Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always check the product information and clinical procedures with the most up to date published product information and data sheets provided by the manufacturers and the most recent codes of conduct and safety regulations. The authors and the publishers do not accept responsibility or legal liability for any errors in the text or for the misuse or misapplication of material in this work. Except where otherwise stated, drug dosages and recommendations are for the non-pregnant adult who is not breastfeeding.

Show Summary Details
Page of

Anal cancer 

Anal cancer
Chapter:
Anal cancer
Author(s):

Debashis Biswas

and Thankamma Ajithkumar

DOI:
10.1093/med/9780199664535.003.0014
Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD MEDICINE ONLINE (www.oxfordmedicine.com). © Oxford University Press, 2021. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Medicine Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 26 January 2021

The incidence of anal cancer is increasing globally. The two important risk factors of anal cancer are human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and immunosuppression. 50% of patients present with localised disease and 30% have regional nodal disease. Radical radiotherapy with concomitant chemotherapy using 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin C (MMC) is the standard treatment of localised disease. With this approach a significant proportion of patients maintains sphincter function and avoids colonostomy. Studies using alternative chemotherapy regimens are not proven to be superior. The optimal time to assess treatment response and plan salvage surgery remains controversial. Patients with advanced disease or recurrence after radical chemoradiotherapy are treated with abdomino-pelvic resection.

Access to the complete content on Oxford Medicine Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts for each book and chapter without a subscription.

Please subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.

For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.