Current Status Of Radiotherapy For Rectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer remains a significant health problem today. In parallel to the developments in the field of surgery, improvements in adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatment modalities lead to increase in both local control and overall survival times. The main purpose of this review is to discuss the current treatment options of rectal cancer with literature data. Surgery is an essential treatment option for rectal cancer. Treatment success for rectal cancer has been increasing by the help of neoadjuvant (preoperative) or adjuvant (postoperative) modalities. According to the recent studies, preoperative (chemo) radiation therapy is superior to postoperative treatment in terms of local control and sphincter preservation. However, there is not enough data regarding to the difference between the efficacy of shortterm preoperative radiotherapy and long-term chemoradiotherapy. Today, for the treatment of rectum cancer, preoperative (chemo) radiotherapy is superior to postoperative (chemo) radiotherapy in terms of overall survival and local control. However, new prospective randomized trials should be designed to compare the short term and long term preoperative (chemo) radiotherapy.