Rectal adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Approximately 40,000 people are diagnosed with rectal cancer in the United States each year. Colonoscopy is the gold standard for colorectal cancer detection. While screening and early detection can prevent the incidence of cancer (by detection in its premalignant state) or allow for disease to be treated at an earlier stage, it remains a leading cause of cancer-related death and carries a worse prognosis compared to colon in terms of local recurrence and overall survival. The management of rectal cancer is distinct from colon cancer in that pre-treatment staging is critical in not only to prognosis, but establishing the treatment algorithm which may consist of local excision, neoadjuvant chemoradiation and/or radical surgery.