State of the art and recent advance in the treatment of resectable nonmetastatic rectal cancer.
BACKGROUND
Standard treatment is achieving good local control for rectal cancer. Innovative approach is aiming at increasing conservative treatment.


METHODS
Strong evidence relies on randomized trials. Phase I and II trials are the method to evaluate advances.


RESULTS
Preoperative radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy is the standard treatment for most of the T3 (4) tumors. To increase conservative treatment innovative neoadjuvant treatment achieving complete clinical response is a promising approach.


CONCLUSIONS
Well-conducted clinical trials are improving the standard treatments and are evaluating new hypotheses.
Ortholan
C
C
Centre Antoine-Lacassagne, NICE, 33 Avenue de Valombrose, 06189 NICE Cedex, France.
Gerard
J P
JP
Benezery
K
K
Francois
E
E
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*