Quality Assurance in Rectal Cancer Treatment

Colorectal cancer is the cancer with the second highest cancer incidence in Europe. Roughly, 1 out of 3 patients with a colorectal malignancy has a rectal carcinoma. Surgery is the cornerstone in the curative treatment of rectal cancer. In the 1980s with conventional surgery, the 5-year local recurrence rate was over 20% and the 5-year overall survival rate around 50%. In the Swedish Rectal Cancer trial, in which 1,168 patients were included, preoperative radiotherapy in addition to conventional surgery resulted in a reduction of more than 50% in the 5-year local recurrence rate in comparison to conventional surgery alone (11 vs. 27%; p