Treatment of stage II and stage III rectal cancer may include:

• chemoradiation followed by surgery
• chemotherapy alone followed by surgery, for people with lower-risk disease
• short-course radiation therapy followed by surgery and chemotherapy
• surgery followed by chemoradiation
• surgery
• chemoradiation followed by active surveillance and possibly surgery if the cancer recurs (comes back)
• immunotherapy with (for treatment of tumors that may have a defect in genes involved in DNA repair)
• a clinical trial of a new treatment strategy

Learn more about these treatments in the Treatment Option Overview.

Use our clinical trial search to find NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are accepting patients. You can search for trials based on the type of cancer, the age of the patient, and where the trials are being done. General information about clinical trials is also available.