Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 14, 2016; 22(2): 467-470
Published online Jan 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i2.467
Complete radiotherapy response in rectal cancer: A review of the evidence
Daniel G Couch, David M Hemingway
Daniel G Couch, David M Hemingway, Department of Surgery, Leicester Royal Infirmary, LE12 8TZ Leicester, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Couch DG performed research analysed data and wrote the paper; Hemingway DH analysed data and wrote the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: David M Hemingway, MB, ChB, FRCS, Consultant Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Leicester Royal Infirmary, LE12 8TZ Leicester, United Kingdom. dhemingway_1@hotmail.com
Telephone: +44-300-3031573
Received: April 22, 2015
Peer-review started: April 23, 2015
First decision: July 20, 2015
Revised: August 13, 2015
Accepted: October 23, 2015
Article in press: October 26, 2015
Published online: January 14, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: The management of rectal cancer has changed considerably over the last 15 years. Here we summarise the need for consensus on the definition of complete response of rectal cancer to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy prior to surgery, the problems associated with with heterogenous treatment programs and the need for randomised evidence.