Table 3.

HT in patients with gastrointestinal and hepato-pancreatic cancers. Summary of articles reviewed.

Author	Article Type	Investigation	Total Participants	Survival Outcome
Oesophageal Cancer
Hu et al., 2017 [48]	Meta-analysis	HT + CTRT vs. CTRT or RT alone	N = 1519 (19 RCTs)	HT + CTRT vs. CTRT: better CR and TER. No difference in recurrence and distal metastases rates. Improved 1-, 3-, 5- and 7-year OS. HT + CTRT vs. RT alone: better CR and TER. Lower recurrence and distal metastases rates. Improved 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year OS.
HCC
Dong et al., 2016 [52]	Phase II RCT	HT + RT vs. RT alone in advanced HCC	N = 80	Improved liver enzyme and TER. Reduced recurrence rates. Reduced 1-year mortality (12.5% vs. 20.0%; p < 0.001).
Pancreatic Cancer
Van de Horst et al., 2017 [53]	Systematic review	Addition of HT to RT and/or CT	N = 395 (14 cohort trials)	Improved median OS and ORR, but not statistically analysed.
Maluta et al., 2011 [54]	Prospective comparative trial	HT + CTRT vs. CTRT in LA pancreas cancer	N = 68	Improved median OS (p = 0.025).
Rectal Cancer
Schulze et al., 2006 [55]	Phase II RCT	HT + CTRT vs. CTRT in NA rectal cancer	N = 137	No difference in QoL. No survival/response data.
Haas-Kock et al., 2009 [56]	Cochrane Systematic Review	HT + RT vs. RT alone in NA rectal cancer	N = 520 (6 RCTs)	CR higher (RR 2.81; p = 0.01). 2-year OS improved (HR 2.06; p = 0.001), but not for 3-,4- or 5-year OS.
Kim et al., 2021 [61]	Prospective comparative trial	mEHT + CTRT vs. CTRT in NA rectal cancer	N = 120	More regression in large tumours. No difference in DFS, OS, recurrent or distal metastases rates.
Anal Cancer
Ott et al., 2018 [62]	Prospective comparative trial	HT + CTRT vs. CTRT alone	N = 112	No difference in regional failure and distal metastases. Improved 5-year DFS, LRFS and OS (95.8% vs. 74.5%; p = 0.045).