Long-term outcome in patients with a pathological complete response after chemoradiation for rectal cancer: a pooled analysis of individual patient data

Locally advanced rectal cancer is usually treated with preoperative chemoradiation. After chemoradiation and surgery, 15-27% of the patients have no residual viable tumour at pathological examination, a pathological complete response (pCR). This study established whether patients with pCR have better long-term outcome than do those without pCR.In PubMed, Medline, and Embase we identified 27 articles, based on 17 different datasets, for long-term...