The multidisciplinary management of gastrointestinal cancer. Multimodal treatment of rectal cancer.

Greater understanding of the natural history of rectal cancer, and the knowledge that a histologically involved circumferential margin due to inadequate lateral dissection confers a high risk of local recurrence have driven technical advances in surgical technique with meticulous surgical dissection along embryological planes. Significant improvements in local control and overall survival have been seen for patients with resectable rectal cancer. However, even high-quality surgery cannot always achieve a curative resection for locally advanced cancers that extend below the levators, having transgressed the mesorectal fascia.