Overview of Recent Trends in the Management of Metastatic Anal Cancer

Anal cancer is a relatively rare gastrointestinal tumor with roughly 7,000 new cases per year. Metastatic anal cancer as an initial presentation occurs in 10-20% of the patients. Treatment for localized disease is well established with concurrent chemoradiation (CCR) therapy as the standard of care; however, metastatic anal cancer remains a therapeutic challenge. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines recommend systemic chemotherapy as the initial choice of treatment for metastatic anal disease. NCCN also recognizes the fact that there are limited data to influence the management of metastatic anal cancer but that some evidence suggests flouropyrimidine and cisplatin as the initial choice of treatment outside the setting of clinical trial. If the patient fails this regimen, options become limited with no strong level I evidence available to guide the treatment. We present two cases of metastatic anal cancer and discuss the potential treatment strategies after failing the initial systemic chemotherapy.