Figure 1.

Schematic overview of regimen for standard neoadjuvant therapy and total neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). In conventional neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT), patients with LARC are treated with radiation (usually 50.4 Gy in 28 fractions of 1.8 Gy) and concurrent infusional 5-fluorouracil or oral capecitabine, followed by total mesorectal excision (TME). In total neoadjuvant therapy, CRT is either preceded by induction chemotherapy (with, for instance, fluoropyrimidine- and oxaliplatin-based regimens) or short-course preoperative radiotherapy (SCPRT, 5×5 Gy), or followed by consolidation chemotherapy, prior to TME. Adjuvant chemotherapy is recommended by many national guidelines.