In patients with anal cancer, experimental chemotherapy treatment with the drug cisplatin failed to increase disease-free survival rates, a randomized trial showed.

According to the American Cancer Society, anal cancer will affect 5,070 Americans this year. The disease is particularly deadly when the tumors exceed 2 inches in size. Mortality rates from it have not improved since the early ‘90s, the Cancer Society said.

In a multicenter phase III trial, a research team conducted by Jaffer Ajani, M.D., professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center compared the standard treatment regimen of fluorouracil plus mitomycin and radiotherapy to fluorouracil plus cisplatin and radiotherapy in 644 patients suffering from anal cancer.

The findings showed a five-year, disease-free survival rate of 60 percent in the mitomycin group and 54 percent in the cisplatin group. The five-year overall survival rate was 75 percent in the mitomycin group and 70 percent in the cisplatin group. There were more cancer-related deaths in the cisplatin group (54) than in the mitomycin group (28).

Also, cisplatin group had a higher rate of colostomy (19 percent vs. 10 percent).

“Based on preliminary data from smaller trials that suggested considerable sensitivity to the fluorouracil plus cisplatin combination, cisplatin has gained popularity among oncologists as a drug to treat anal canal cancer. However, it is clear from this data that cisplatin is not the drug to use and its use should be discontinued in standard therapy,” Dr. Ajani said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The study’s findings appeared in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.