Locally Advanced Malignant Neoplasm

Locally advanced rectal carcinoma raise the issue of both the oncological control, local and general, and the therapeutic morbidity. Surgery alone can cure only one out of two patients, radiochemotherapy improves the local control but the metastatic risk remains about 30% with enhanced postoperative morbidity and poor functional results. The tumor response to preoperative treatment is the major prognostic factor which revealed the aggressiveness of the tumor. To this day, there are no biologic predictive markers for tumor response. The purpose of this trial is to tailor the management according to the early tumoral response after short and intensive induction chemotherapy. MRI volumetric tumor response will be used to distinguish between good responders and bad responders. "Very good" responders will be randomized to either immediate surgery or radiochemotherapy followed by surgery (Standard arm: Cap 50).

Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), Sevagram, District Wardha, Maharashtra, India is located in a rural setup and caters to a very underprivileged patient population with limited resources to even pay for their treatment. As per the latest Indian Cancer Registry Report 2020, of the 28 population based cancer registries (PBCR), the age adjusted incidence rates (AAR) in males and females are 64.9 and 69.9. This makes the AAR in Wardha District (district where MGIMS is located) as one of the lowest ranked AAR both for male (national range: 39.5 - 269.4) and females (national range: 49.4 - 219.8) in the country. However, the %mortality / incidence, is one of the highest for Wardha, both for males (65.9%, national range: 14.7% - 71.9%) and females (53%, national range: 9% - 63%). This indicates that the prognosis of patients in this district is one of the worst in India and thus requires a new approach to their standard therapeutic option. This has to be cost-effective, without any significant additional morbidity, and should used in conjunction to the standard treatment of radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Hyperthermia, which is raising the tumor temperature to 40 - 43°C is perhaps one of the oldest forms of treatment for cancer. Hyperthermia, being a potent radiosensitizer, a chemosensitizer, an immunomodulator with no significantly added side effects, could be an effective therapeutic modality that could be expected to improve the outcome in these patients. However, it also needs to be cost-effective and require low capital cost investment so that other centers, especially in low and low-middle income countries could also introduce hyperthermia to the therapeutic armamentarium for cancer. This is a registry trial for patients being treated with hyperthermia along with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy as per the standard departmental protocol for various locally advanced cancers.