Optimal staging and treatment of localised rectal cancer

Abstract

Staging is crucial when deciding which type of procedure a patient with rectal cancer should be offered. It is also crucial to know the local stage at diagnosis in order to decide whether to use radiotherapy. The forthcoming decade will hopefully give us more knowledge about how to find patients suitable for local excision or abdominal procedure, but also how to find those where radiotherapy is necessary and those where radiotherapy is superfluous.