Rectal cancer: diagnosis, screening and treatment.

Rectal cancer is one of the primary malignant neoplasms occurring in Mexican patients of reproductive age. Unfortunately, randomized studies in rectal cancer do not exist as they do with well-recognized colon cancer. We must individualize the epidemiology, risk factors, diagnostic approach, staging and treatment because management is different in rectal cancers affecting the mid- and lower third of the rectum than in the upper third and in colon cancers.