Therapeutic evaluation and surgical strategy after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer

Abstract

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer could significantly reduce the tumor stage, improve the radical resection and increase the overall survival rate of the patients. Recently researches reported that patients who acquired complete response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy might accept "wait and see" strategy or local excision and could earn promising long-term outcomes as those accepted radical surgery. The diagnostic criteria and efficacy of tumor response for chemoradiotherapy are insufficient and controversial. Moreover, clinical practice showed that chemoradiotherapy-related surgical complications, including anastomotic leakage, incision complications and colon stricture, remarkably increased, so the benefits and risks of patients should be reconsidered further in choosing the surgical strategies after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.