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- Standard Treatment Stage II rectal cancer is highly treatable and often curable. There are several options for treatment, including:
- • Removal of a wide margin of tissue and reconnection of the bowel to the rectum (anastomosis) when the tumor
- is in the upper rectum.
- • The same surgical procedure followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy , which has shown an increased
- disease-free survival compared with surgery alone or surgery and radiation. 5-FU and radiation can improve
- remission and prolong survival.
- • Continuous-infusion 5-FU chemotherapy together with radiation therapy, especially for high-risk Stage II and
- Stage III cancers.
- • An abdominal perineal resection and colostomy , with or without adjuvant radiation and chemotherapy, for
- tumors near the anus.
- • Those with B2 tumors will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy if they have features that point to a recurrence
- (abnormal chromosomes by DNA analysis, invasion of the outside wall, perforation, adhesion to organs or
- invasion of adjacent organs).
- • For B3 lesions, the pelvic organs (bladder, uterus or prostate) may be removed (pelvic exenteration) when that
- is necessary to remove all the cancer, with or without adjuvant chemotherapy.
- • Adding postoperative radiation and chemotherapy will reduce pelvic recurrences and improve chances of
- survival (there is 25 to 30 percent chance of local recurrence with this stage).
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