Neoadjuvant Therapy for Rectal Cancer.

Abstract

A 63-year-old man presents to his primary care doctor with a one-month history of blood in his stools. He is referred for a colonoscopy and found to have a friable mass along the anterior wall just proximal to the second rectal fold. A biopsy confirms moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma. The patient then obtains pelvic magnetic resonance imaging and chest, abdomen, and pelvis computed tomography demonstrating local invasion of the primary tumor into the mesorectal fat (T3), no suspicious regional lymph nodes (N0), and no evidence of distant metastatic disease (M0).