About this Research Topic
Morphologic and functional imaging applied to radiotherapy has a valuable role from diagnostic to therapeutic (e.g. MRI, PET/CT, fMRI, CT, kvCB-CT). In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in imaging application as biomarker of tumour aggressiveness, treatment response, patient’s survival and radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity in order to better personalise treatment approaches, and potentially reduce acute and late effects and reduce treatment burden.
This more extensive application in upper and lower gastro-intestinal tumour is intriguing considering the new treatment approaches under evaluation in several clinical trials. In particular, in the field of anal cancer, there is growing interest for the de-intensification vs intensification of radiotherapy treatment according to tumour stage and risk of relapse, while in rectal cancer the fascinating concept of total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) and watchful waiting strategy may replace the standard multimodality approach according to risk stratification. Moreover, the concept of wait and see in esophageal cancer after neoadjuvant chemo-radiation achieving complete clinical response is under investigation.
The present Research Topic aims at providing a forum to present current advances in the use of diagnostic and therapeutic imaging as potential markers of tumour aggressiveness and predictive tool for treatment response in order to clarify the scenario of treatment tailoring, so as to ultimately benefit ano-rectal and gastro-esophageal cancer patients.
We welcome submissions of Original Research, Clinical Trial, Systematic Reviews, Reviews and Case Reports focusing on but are not limited to:
1. State-of-Art of imaging (MRI, CT, PET/CT) as predictive and prognostic tool
2. Application of imaging in the field of radiomics
3. Clinical studies aimed at exploring personalized treatment approaches (intensification or deintensification) based on imaging data
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in Frontiers in Oncology.
This more extensive application in upper and lower gastro-intestinal tumour is intriguing considering the new treatment approaches under evaluation in several clinical trials. In particular, in the field of anal cancer, there is growing interest for the de-intensification vs intensification of radiotherapy treatment according to tumour stage and risk of relapse, while in rectal cancer the fascinating concept of total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) and watchful waiting strategy may replace the standard multimodality approach according to risk stratification. Moreover, the concept of wait and see in esophageal cancer after neoadjuvant chemo-radiation achieving complete clinical response is under investigation.
The present Research Topic aims at providing a forum to present current advances in the use of diagnostic and therapeutic imaging as potential markers of tumour aggressiveness and predictive tool for treatment response in order to clarify the scenario of treatment tailoring, so as to ultimately benefit ano-rectal and gastro-esophageal cancer patients.
We welcome submissions of Original Research, Clinical Trial, Systematic Reviews, Reviews and Case Reports focusing on but are not limited to:
1. State-of-Art of imaging (MRI, CT, PET/CT) as predictive and prognostic tool
2. Application of imaging in the field of radiomics
3. Clinical studies aimed at exploring personalized treatment approaches (intensification or deintensification) based on imaging data
Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) will not be accepted in Frontiers in Oncology.
Keywords: Rectal Cancer, Radiotherapy, Gastro-esophageal Cancer, Anal Cancer, MRI
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
