Factors Associated with Control of Anal Cancer in Patients Treated with Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy
Keywords:
retrospective studies; risk factors; neoplasms; prediction; chemoradiotherapyAbstract
Introduction: Anal cancer is a rare neoplasm, but its incidence is increasing. The standard treatment for locally advanced stages is concurrent chemoradiotherapy. There is a gap in knowledge regarding the factors associated with the success of this treatment.
Objective: To evaluate the factors associated with control of anal cancer in patients treated with concurrent chemoradiation.
Methods: A retrospective analytical study was conducted, with a population of 109 patients diagnosed with anal cancer who were referred for treatment at the María Curie Provincial Teaching Oncology Hospital between January 2019 and January 2026; the sample consisted of the 56 patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The association between sociodemographic variables, risk factors, clinical characteristics, and therapeutic factors and the outcome “disease control” was evaluated. The chi-square test was used for bivariate analysis, and a logistic regression model was constructed to identify predictive factors.
Results: Disease control was achieved in 43 patients (76.8%). In the multivariate analysis, clinical stage III-B (OR: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.01–0.58; p = 0.012) and sexual promiscuity (OR: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.01–0.99; p = 0.049) were associated with a lower probability of achieving disease control. Smoking showed a trend toward a worse outcome, but did not reach statistical significance.
Conclusions: Clinical stage III-B and sexual promiscuity were identified as predictors of poor disease control. The logistic regression model obtained served as a robust tool for identifying subgroups at risk of treatment failure.
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