Dr. Van Loon Discusses the Management of Rectal Cancer

Katherine Van Loon, MD, gastrointestinal cancer specialist, University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the management of rectal cancer.

The management of local rectal cancer has changed dramatically in the last 5 years, says Van Loon. One of the biggest advancements is the incorporation of neoadjuvant chemotherapy into NCCN guidelines. Originally, Van Loon said that she thought that the only patients that would benefit from neoadjuvant chemotherapy would be those with poor risk factors such as T4 and N2 disease.

As it has been put into practice more regularly over the past year, Van Loon says that most patients tolerate neoadjuvant chemotherapy very well. Responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy are generally very favorable, and Van Loon says that she is routinely offering it with FOLFOX, followed by chemoradiation.