 The standard treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer involves neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy CRT followed by surgery and further adjuvant chemotherapy. The pathologic complete responses associated with neoadjuvant CRT are 10-20. The prognosis of patients undergoing neoadjuvant CRT is associated to the extent of post-treatment tumour regression, the final primary tumour stage and presence of involved lymph nodes in the surgical specimen. This data suggests that treatments that enhance the pathological response may result in improvements in survival. 