Presently, rectal cancer requires a multimodality approach to
therapy. In this scheme, radiation therapy may play an important
role in increasing the local control rate, improving disease-
free and overall survival rates, and protection of organ
function. Many studies have been conducted to improve treatment
response rates. Radiation therapy schedule is the most
studied issues among them. The advantages and disadvantages
of preoperative radiotherapy when compared to postoperative
administration have been studied in several phase II and
phase III studies. In addition, it has been demonstrated that
the preoperative approach increases the local control rates
with a reduction in acute and late toxicity. Preoperative radiotherapy
can be either applied as long-term or short-term. The
main advantage of the long-term approach is that it can be applied
with concomitant chemotherapy which results in higher
response rates and complete pathological reduction. The aim
of this review article is to summarize the evidence in literature
and determine the most appropriate form of radiotherapy
in the management of rectal cancer.
Keywords: Preoperative radiotherapy; postoperative radiotherapy; rectal cancer
