Preoperative chemotherapy in LACC patients is safe and able to induce major tumor regression. Survival times are encouraging, and further research seems warranted.

No abstract

The presence of PLVI is a more powerful prognostic factor than TRG in LARC patients treated with neoadjuvant CRT followed by surgery. PLVI denotes an aggressive phenotype, suggesting that these patients may benefit from adjuvant systemic therapy.

Patients with low third locally advanced rectal cancer with a poor response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (high y-pathological stage or low tumor regression grade) are at high risk of recurrence. Intense surveillance and the design of alternative therapeutic approaches aimed to lower the distant failure rate seem warranted.

Our results suggest that cellular mucin pools are an indicator of an aggressive phenotype and harbingers of a worse prognosis.