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World J Gastrointest Surg. Jul 27, 2025; 17(7): 106724
Published online Jul 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i7.106724
Predicting neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy response in rectal cancer: Insights from biomarkers to clinical practice
Hikmet Pehlevan-Özel, Eda Şahingöz, Mert Altaş, Mesut Tez
Hikmet Pehlevan-Özel, Department of Surgery, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara 06800, Türkiye
Eda Şahingöz, Department of General Surgery, University of Health Sciences, Ankara 06100, Türkiye
Mert Altaş, Department of Surgery, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Ankara 06800, Türkiye
Mesut Tez, Department of Surgery, University of Health Sciences, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara 06800, Türkiye
Co-first authors: Hikmet Pehlevan-Özel and Eda Şahingöz.
Author contributions: Pehlevan-Özel H and Şahingöz E contributed equally to the conception and design of the study, data collection, and drafting of the manuscript; Altaş M participated in data analysis, interpretation, and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; Tez M supervised the project, contributed to the study design, provided surgical expertise, and finalized the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mesut Tez, Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Health Sciences, Ankara City Hospital, No. 1 Bilkent Street, District of Universities, Ankara 06800, Türkiye. mesuttez@yahoo.com
Received: March 6, 2025
Revised: March 31, 2025
Accepted: May 19, 2025
Published online: July 27, 2025
Processing time: 140 Days and 4.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This review synthesized biomarkers predicting neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy response in rectal cancer, including clinical predictors (e.g., tumor size, nodal status), histopathological features (e.g., tumor regression grading), molecular markers (e.g., KRAS mutations), microenvironmental factors (e.g., tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes), and radiomics to guide personalized treatment and improve outcomes.