Concomitant chemoradiotherapy for solid tumors

The treatment of locoregionally advanced solid tumors has been hampered by the inability of currently available therapy modalities to eradicate all tumors cells. This applies to surgery and radiation therapy, which frequently are able to control the bulk of locoregional disease but ultimately do not prevent locoregional recurrence. Similarly, chemotherapy can at times induce locoregional tumor shrinkage, but is unable to successfully eradicate macroscopic disease. On the other hand, chemotherapy can, at least in some tumor types, eradicate micrometastatic systemic disease. In addition, chemotherapy might be able to improve locoregional control rates of surgery and/or radiotherapy if given in sequence or concurrently. Based on this background, combined modality programs have been investigated intensively. For many years, research has focused predominantly on the sequential use of combined modality regimens, i.e., neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. At present, concomitant chemoradiotherapy is increasingly being viewed as a potentially more successful combination of multiple treatment modalities.