Adj CT	Adjuvant Chemotherapy
AE	Adverse Event
APC	Article Processing Charge (cover letter only)
APR	Abdominoperineal Resection
ASCO	American Society of Clinical Oncology
AV	Anal Verge
CAP	College of American Pathologists (tumour regression grading)
CapeOX/CAPOX	Capecitabine + Oxaliplatin (chemotherapy regimen)
cCR	Clinical Complete Response
CEA	Carcinoembryonic Antigen
CGA	Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment
CI	Confidence Interval
CINTS-R	ctDNA-guided neoadjuvant treatment strategy for locally advanced rectal cancer (trial)
CNA	Copy Number Alteration
CR	Complete Response
CRM	Circumferential Resection Margin
CRT	Chemoradiotherapy/Chemoradiation
CT	Chemotherapy or Computed Tomography
ctDNA	Circulating Tumour DNA
CTV	Clinical Target Volume
CXB	Contact X-ray Brachytherapy
DFS	Disease-Free Survival
dMMR	Deficient Mismatch Repair
DrTF	Disease-related Treatment Failure
DWI	Diffusion-Weighted Imaging
EBRT	External Beam Radiotherapy
ECOG	Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group
eCRF	Electronic Case Report Form
EDC	Electronic Data Capture
ELAPE	Extralevator Abdominoperineal Excision
EMBASE	Excerpta Medica dataBASE
EMVI	Extramural Vascular Invasion
ERUS	Endorectal Ultrasound
ESMO	European Society for Medical Oncology
EUS	Endoscopic Ultrasound
FOLFIRINOX	Folinic acid, Fluorouracil, Irinotecan, Oxaliplatin
FOLFOX	Folinic acid, Fluorouracil, Oxaliplatin
G2/G3/G4	Grade 2/Grade 3/Grade 4 (toxicity grading)
GI	Gastrointestinal
GTV	Gross Tumour Volume
Gy	Gray (unit of radiation dose)
HR	Hazard Ratio
ICI/ICIs	Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor(s)
ICR	Incomplete Response
IMRT	Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy
irAE	Immune-related Adverse Event
ISR	Intersphincteric Resection
ITT	Intention-To-Treat
LARC	Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer
LARS	Low Anterior Resection Syndrome
LCRT	Long-Course Radiotherapy/Long-Course Chemoradiotherapy
LE	Local Excision
LLND	Lateral Lymph Node Dissection
LMIC	Low- and Middle-Income Countries
LoRP	Library of Reference Plans
LPLN	Lateral Pelvic Lymph Node(s)
LPLN+	Lateral Pelvic Lymph Node-Positive
LPLN−	Lateral Pelvic Lymph Node-Negative
LR	Locoregional Recurrence
LRRFS	Locoregional Recurrence-Free Survival
MeSH	Medical Subject Headings
mFOLFOX6	Modified FOLFOX regimen (6-drug variant)
MFS	Metastasis-Free Survival
MMR	Mismatch Repair
MPR	Major Pathological Response
MR	Magnetic Resonance
MRF	Mesorectal Fascia
MRF+	Mesorectal Fascia Involvement/Positive
MRF−	Mesorectal Fascia Uninvolved/Negative
MRI	Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRI-LINAC	Magnetic Resonance Imaging-guided Linear Accelerator
MSI-H	Microsatellite Instability-High
MSS	Microsatellite Stable
mITT	Modified Intention-To-Treat
N+	Node-Positive
N0	Node-Negative
NACRT	Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy
NAR	Neoadjuvant Rectal (score)
NCCN	National Comprehensive Cancer Network
nCRT	Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy
NCR	Near-Complete Response
nCT	Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy
NGS	Next-Generation Sequencing
NI	Non-Inferiority
NK	Natural Killer (cells)
NOM	Non-Operative Management
NS	Not Significant
OAR	Organ at Risk
OP	Organ Preservation
OPS	Organ Preservation Strategies
OR	Odds Ratio
OS	Overall Survival
pCR	Pathological Complete Response
PD-1	Programmed Death-1
PD-L1	Programmed Death-Ligand 1
PET/CT	Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography
pMMR	Proficient Mismatch Repair
PRISMA	Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
PRO	Patient-Reported Outcome
PROSPERO	International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews
PTV	Planning Target Volume
QALY	Quality-Adjusted Life Year
QLQ-C30	Quality of Life Questionnaire—Core 30 (EORTC)
QoL	Quality of Life
RCT	Randomised Controlled Trial
RNA-seq	RNA Sequencing
RoB 2	Revised Cochrane Risk of Bias tool for randomised trials (version 2)
RT	Radiotherapy
SAE	Serious Adverse Event
SBRT	Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy
SCRT	Short-Course Radiotherapy
scRNA-seq	Single-Cell RNA Sequencing
SIB	Simultaneous Integrated Boost
SNI	Selective Nodal Irradiation
SNV	Single-Nucleotide Variant
TaTME	Transanal Total Mesorectal Excision
TCGA	The Cancer Genome Atlas
TEM	Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgery
TIL	Tumour-Infiltrating Lymphocyte
TMB	Tumour Mutational Burden
TME	Total Mesorectal Excision
TNT	Total Neoadjuvant Therapy
TPS	Tumour Proportion Score
TRG	Tumour Regression Grade
VAF	Variant Allele Frequency
W&W	Watch-and-Wait
XELOX	Capecitabine + Oxaliplatin (same as CAPOX)
yp	Pathological stage after neoadjuvant therapy