Patients with advanced rectal cancer can be given the most appropriate follow-up treatment if they are given an MRI scan before they have surgery, a UK study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has suggested. People with advanced rectal cancer often receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy to shrink the tumours before they are surgically removed. Scientists running the MERCURY research programme found that using MRI to measure how well a patient’s tumour has responded to such treatment helps predict how long that patient will survive following surgery.
