Randomized Clinical Trial on Preoperative Radiotherapy 25 Gy in Rectal Cancer

The treatment group comprises patients with locally advanced rectal cancer who were operated on in the 1st Department of General Surgery, Jagiellonian University, Cracow. The data on survival has been systematically collected using national census registry. Patients are qualified to preoperative radiotherapy 5x5 Gy and then randomly assigned to subgroups with different time interval between radiotherapy and surgery: one subgroup consists of patients operated on 7-10 days after the end of irradiation, the second subgroup consists of patients operated on after 4-5 weeks. Both should be homogenous in sex, age, cancer stage and localization, distal and circumferential resection margins, number of resected lymph nodes. 3D endorectal ultrasound and endorectal ultrasound with SonoVue are performed to assess the tumor before and after preoperative radiotherapy.