Chemotherapy

Healthcare providers often combine chemotherapy and radiation therapy as initial anal cancer treatment. The combined treatments often eliminate anal cancer, so you don’t need surgery.

If you do need surgery, you may have chemotherapy beforehand to shrink the tumour (neoadjuvant chemotherapy) or after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells (adjuvant chemotherapy).

Literature
1. Tchelebi, L. T., Eng, C., Messick, C. A., Hong, T. S., Ludmir, E. B., Kachnic, L. A., & Zaorsky, N. G. (2021). Current treatment and future directions in the management of anal cancer. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21712