The treatment for rectal cancer is a little bit different than for patients with colon cancer. Depending on the stage of the patient's rectal cancer, we often offer combined chemo radiation prior to undergoing surgery. Studies have shown that the neoadjuvant or pre-surgery chemo radiation can help to reduce the risk of local recurrence for such patients. Once you have completed chemo radiation, the patients then undergo surgery afterwards and after recovering from surgery, they receive further systemic chemotherapy for several months.