Capecitabine Equivalent to Infusional 5-Fluorouracil for Rectal Cancer

The reduction of local recurrence from combination adjuvant radiotherapy plus chemotherapy has made chemoradiotherapy the standard of care in rectal cancer. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy has also been adopted because it further reduces local recurrence and improves therapy tolerance.

To help determine the optimal preoperative chemoradiotherapy regimen in rectal cancer, investigators conducted a multicenter, randomized, 2×2 factorial, phase III trial involving more than 1300 patients; most were men (67%–68%), most had clinical stage II disease (62%), and most were scheduled for sphincter-sparing surgery (73%–74%). Patients received radiotherapy (1.8 Gy fractions daily 5 days a week for 5 weeks for a total dose of 45 Gy) with either infusiona…