Table 2.

Local recurrence rates in rectal cancer associated with either more extensive surgery or after neoadjuvant radiotherapy, based on randomized trials data

Clinical Trial	Treatment Group (number of patients)	Local Recurrence Rate	p-value
Japanese Trial8	Mesorectal excision alone (350)	17.6% (5-year)	p=0.024
	Mesorectal excision plus lateral lymph node dissection (351)	9.8% (5-year)
Dutch TME Trial11	TME alone (701)	11.0% (5-year)	p<0.001
	Preoperative radiotherapy plus TME (713)	4.6% (5-year)
MRC CR07 Trial12	TME with selective postoperative chemoradiotherapy (676)	10.6% (3-year)	p<0.0001
	Preoperative radiotherapy plus TME (674)	4.4% (3-year)

TME, total mesorectal excision