Palliative management of rectal cancer: The roles of chemotherapy and radiation therapy

One of the first maxims of oncologic care is that we must never miss an opportunity to cure a patient. Perhaps an equally important corollary is that to provide the best possible care for each individual, it is necessary to accurately recognize when a curative option does not exist and to adjust our treatment recommendations accordingly. A discussion of palliative care in a patient with rectal cancer must therefore be based on the assumption that the patient does not have a realistic chance of undergoing a curative intervention. (C) 2004 The Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract.