LAUSR

Standard of care (SoC) treatment of highrisk locally advanced rectal cancer typically involves concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) using capecitabine only, followed by total mesorectal excision (TME) and optional adjuvant CAPOX or FOLFOX4 chemotherapy. Now, data from the phase III RAPIDO trial involving 912 patients suggest that sequential CRT comprising shortcourse radiotherapy followed by neoadjuvant CAPOX or FOLFOX4, with delayed TME, provides better disease control and can be considered as a new SoC. Using this approach, the cumulative rate of locoregional recurrence, distant metastasis, second primary colorectal cancer or treatmentrelated death at 3 years was 23.7% versus 30.4% with SoC treatment. The respective serious adverse event rates were 38% versus 34%.